Fragments of Lost Memories
by AngelicTrinity
Summary: Yuuki Kobayashi lost her memories after a car accident. Six months later she moves back to Namimori in hopes that she'll recover what she had lost. But as her past begins to return to her, she realizes she didn't exactly live an ordinary life. TsunaxOC.
1. Prologue

**And yes, I'm working on another fanfic. This one is blatantly TsunaxOC but I promise to make the pairing as realistic as I can since no one, including me, wants to read a story on instant love and mary-sueness *shudder*. So, the series will start off pretty slow but will get pretty dramatic later on, I can promise you that.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Only the main character of this story as well as any other OCs who support the main character.**

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Yuuki's fingers trembled as she clumsily worked to unclasp the metal locks, her hands slipping several times to undo them in her haste to open up the leather case and see what was inside.

Days she had stared at the case, curiosity eating her from within. By the shape of it, she knew it was a musical instrument.

For some reason, Yuuki couldn't bring herself to open it and had left it untouched on her neat wooden desk. She didn't know why she didn't want to see what was in it; was she scared? Yuuki had no idea. But whenever she wasn't doing anything she would always find her stare wandering towards the leather case or her thoughts drifting towards it if she wasn't in her room.

Eventually her curiosity of wanting to open the case got the better of her which was why she was finally forcing herself to look inside the case.

Gripping the sides of the lid, she took a deep breath and forced herself to pry apart the case.

Yuuki could only stare in awe at what had laid inside the entire time.

Staring up at her, nestled in dark blue velvet, was a violin. A well taken care of violin as its polished wood gleamed up at her imploringly. When she picked up the instrument, the girl blinked at just how natural and light it felt within her hands. Was this violin hers?

That was a stupid question. Of course it was hers. Why on earth would it be in her room otherwise?

But it was the first thing in weeks that had felt nostalgic. Everything else was she saw or touched just felt plain awkward.

She picked up the bow that had been lying right next to its respectful place by the violin. She tuned the instrument before positioning it on her shoulder, resting her jaw on the chin rest. While Yuuki held on to the bow with her right hand, she contemplated on what piece she should play.

After several minutes had passed, Yuuki decided that thinking about it was getting her nowhere so she should just go with what she had been following the entire time to get her through the days: her instincts.

The first several times she had slid the bow on the tight strings of the instrument she wasn't playing anything in specific. Not that she expected herself to.

But the more she played, the longer the notes became until she was playing something that resembled actual music. It was an upbeat catchy tune, yet the story it told was in contradiction to that.

The piece she was playing told a story about two people. It was a story about love and loyalty. A story so intertwined between those two that one of them was willing to kill the person they had fallen in love with for the sake of that other person. And even then when a crowd came to kill the one who gave the orders, the one who remained loyal switched places with that person and took their place in the execution with no one the wiser to the switch.

They were siblings separated during childhood to perform their duties.

A princess and her servant.

Sister and brother.

Twins of evil.

When the song came to an end Yuuki heard someone knocking at the door.

"Oh, uh, come in!" She called, quickly placing the violin and the bow back into the case and slamming the lid shut just as a woman entered the room.

"Was that you playing?" The woman asked, looking at Yuuki curiously.

"Yes." Yuuki nodded, already feeling uncomfortable under the woman's curious and hopeful gaze.

She and the woman resembled each other strongly in appearance with a few differences here and there. It was like staring in a mirror, except that Yuuki had long auburn hair that came down to the middle of her back while the woman's hair was a light chocolate colour and shoulder length. They had the same hazel eyes, though Yuuki's were a little more greener.

But that shouldn't have been surprising considering that the woman was her mother.

"Did you... remember that song?"

And Yuuki was forced to shake her head and say no because she hadn't remembered the song at all; she had just allowed her body to move on it's own.

Her mother's hopeful expression faltered for a second but since Yuuki had been expecting it, she hadn't missed that brief second of sadness before the woman forced herself to smile at her again.

"Alright then. Dinner will be ready in half an hour, so come down by then alright?"

Yuuki nodded and the woman left the room.

Once she was gone, the girl let out a long breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding the entire time. As usual, whenever she spoke to someone, the conversation had ended on an awkward note that left an unpleasant taste afterwards.

She went to the bathroom and peered at herself in the mirror. Gazing back at her was the face of a girl who had resembled the woman who came into the room earlier.

_Her _room.

She stretched one of her cheeks.

She was staring at _her _reflection.

Yuuki reached out and touched the mirror, the reflection doing the same. No matter how many times she did this, it was like staring into the face of a stranger. She knew that the mirror never lied and that the girl with auburn hair and hazel eyes was her, but still...

...it didn't feel right.

Not wanting to stare at her reflection any longer she went back into the bedroom and lay on her bed to stare up at the ceiling, recalling what had caused this awkward tension between her and those she knew.

The doctors told her that she had amnesia that had been brought on by the physical trauma of being run down by the car, even though it had slowed down enough as not to cause any significant injuries.

But it was enough to put her in a coma for two weeks.

0000

When Yuuki finally woken up, she discovered that the only thing she remembered was her name: Yuuki Kobayashi. All of Yuuki's memories of her family and past before she had woken up in the hospital had completely vanished.

She was capable of taking care of herself and was able to function normally in society, but those she used to know before were now complete strangers to her and that the surroundings she was normally accustomed to had become unfamiliar.

It was worrying but the doctors assured her parents that her memories would come in due time. It wasn't very surprising that she had amnesia since she did hit her head upon impact with the pavement.

That had been five months ago and still Yuuki remembered nothing.

She knew that it hurt her parents when she still greeted them as if they were merely acquaintances getting used to each other, but what could she do about it? It wasn't easy for her to treat the very people she had supposedly known for her entire life like that, but that was how she felt towards them even if it made things uncomfortable.

They visited another doctor when it became clear that she wasn't going to remember anything any time soon and he came up with a very plausible theory as to why her memories weren't returning to her despite her head having long healed.

_"It's possible that there is a psychological block within her mind preventing her from regaining her memories. What was she like before the accident?"_

And to her surprise, it sounded as if Yuuki had been going through some sort of depression.

She went to school and earned good grades, but hardly interacted with any of the students at her school much less had any friends. And when would come home, she would always lock herself in her room until it was dinner time. During meals, she was very solemn and wouldn't say anything unless she was asked a direct question that concerned.

Interestingly enough, her older sister and brother as well as her parents said that it had been a very long time since anyone had seen her smile.

This made Yuuki wonder what was going on in her life before the accident and if her memory loss was actually a good thing disguised as being bad, but she didn't voice this out loud.

She glanced over at the alarm clock by her bedside table and saw that fifteen minutes had passed. That meant she had fifteen more minutes before dinner was ready. Pushing herself off the bed, Yuuki decided to go down earlier since she had been stuck in her room all day anyways. Just as she was creeping down the stairs, she heard voices talking.

Instantly the girl knew that whoever was in the kitchen was talking about her.

Walking down the steps as quietly as she could, Yuuki used the carpet padded stairs to her advantage. They always talked about her whenever she was in her room or when she was out, so even though she knew it was wrong, she would listen into their conversations when she got the chance. Her family for some reason seemed reluctant to talk to her about what kind of person she was before the accident, as if they were afraid of something.

_"...heard your sister playing the violin!" _

That was her mother.

_"Did she remember how to play the violin or did it come to her through instinct like everything else did?"_

That would be her older sister Maiko, or Mai, as everyone called her.

There was a pause before their mother let out a reluctant sigh and answered that she it was as Maiko had said.

_"It's been nearly half a year!" _A male voice growled angrily and Yuuki instantly recognized the male voice amongst females to belong to her older brother Kenshin. He was the one who was the most angry about Yuuki's current condition and was also the one who was the most hurt by her inability to recognize them.

_"Be patient."_ Yuuki could picture Mai rolling her eyes at him. _"It takes years for some amnesiac people to recover their memories. Just be grateful there wasn't any permanent brain damage." _

Out of the entire family right now, it was her sister who she was most at ease and got along with the most._  
><em>

_"Enough you two!" _Their mother scolded them. She didn't like it when the kids quarreled. _"There's nothing we can do. You know what the doctor said." _

The last specialist they had visited said that there was a chance that Yuuki would never recover her past memories. That didn't sit well with her family, so he suggested a variety of things that might help trigger something, but in the end only time would tell.

_"So have you told her?" _

The eavesdropper leaned in closer. They must have had some family meeting or something prior to this conversation without her because she had no idea what they were talking about.

_"No, not yet." _A pause. _"I was planning on telling her about it when your father comes home." _

_"I don't see how having her live in Namimori again is going to help her. The bastard who hurt her still lives there, last I checked." _Yuuki's ears perked. This wasn't the first time she had heard Kenshin refer to the 'bastard' who lived in their old town in Namimori, Japan but when she asked him about it he would always clamp his mouth shut, gritting his teeth.

_"Kenshin!" _Uh-oh. Looked like her brother was in for it now; their mother sounded angry. _"I've told you time and time again not to call him that!" _

_"What the hell else am I supposed to call him?" _Kenshin sounded angry as well. _"He did more than just hurt Yuuki's feelings; he DESTROYED her! You remember what her face looked like before we moved to the States! It's because of him she was practically a basket case for the last three years!"_

Realizing that things were about to get ugly really fast, Yuuki took this opportunity to sneak back up the stairs and avoid being caught listening into what was a private conversation.

Besides, her latest eavesdropping excursion had left her with even more questions that needed answering. Analyzing her brother's words, someone, a boy, had hurt her emotionally and it had been pretty bad.

_"It's possible that there is a psychological block within her mind preventing her from regaining her memories."_

Was the person three years ago who had hurt her the reason for her state of mind now?

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><p><strong>And I'm done! Hope you like this, even though it only took me two days to write. I want you to tell me what you think of the first chapter, even though it's a bit slow right now. Do any of your recognize the song that Yuuki was playing on the violin? Tell me in your reviews!<strong>

**I'll give you a hint though: Vocaloid.  
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**Just so you know, Yuuki's violin skills makes very important statements through out the story. You'll see.  
><strong>

**Don't forget to review!**_  
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	2. Chapter One

**While I can't bring myself to type up a chapter of 'The Guardian Angel' I can, however, work on this. So I'm going to type this up while the inspiration for this chapter is still here so I don't have to force myself to try and write something later on.  
><strong>

**And right now, there is a literal cat fight going on near the back alleys of my apartment. Ah well. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the KHR or the Happy Cafe franchise; I only own Yuuki and any other OCs that appear in this story. **

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

About a month after she had eavesdropped on that conversation, Yuuki was in her new apartment putting away the things that had been shipped on ahead of her so that she didn't have to drag around any heavy luggage once she was at the airport. The only things she did have with her as carry-on was a backpack full of necessities that she might need while she was on the plane and the violin case that contained her violin inside.

She had moved in two weeks before the new japanese school year to give her time to unpack as well as adjust to the time zone difference that was expected when traveling to the other side of the world. For Yuuki, that meant a lot of forcing herself to stay awake during the day when she instead wanted to collapse where she stood.

But she was able to adjust within a matter of days.

Then she moved onto unpacking her stuff and by the time she was finished, she still had six days left before school started. Coincidentally enough, her birthday and the start of the new term were on the same day. She was supposed to be turning seventeen this year.

When her family broke the news about their decision of having her to move to Japan, Yuuki looked surprised as if she hadn't been listening in earlier when she had decided to come down before dinner. They gave her a choice as to whether she wanted to go or not, but she agreed to their idea. She wanted her memories back just as much as they did, and if moving to her old hometown would help her then yes she would gladly go. But the thing was, she'd have to live there by herself since everyone else was already preoccupied with something that prevented them from going with her.

Not that Yuuki minded or anything; she could take perfect care of herself and it would be nice to get away from the awkwardness she had been forced to become accustomed to over the past few months. At least here, she didn't have to put up a brave front to convince her family that she was fine. She could sulk all she wanted and not have to worry about anyone checking up on her to make sure she wasn't having a mental breakdown. She wondered if it had to do with what she was like _before _the accident.

But she was a bit concerned that she had forgotten to speak and write in Japanese though, though it turned out that her language skills were fine, so she didn't need to be concerned about that.

Sprawled over the wooden floor, Yuuki stared up at the ceiling and wondered what she should do next. She supposed she could watch TV, but she checked it ten minutes ago and saw that nothing was good. Reading was an option, but at the moment she didn't feel like it.

Without getting up from the floor the auburn haired girl's head turned towards the sliding doors that lead to the balcony.

So that left her with the third option...

...leaving her apartment and exploring the town.

Yuuki had been putting that off for as long as she could. She knew that at some point, she was going to have to go out and buy new groceries since she was running low on the ones that she had gotten before or otherwise risk starving to death.

With a sigh and a stomach that grumbled due to the fact she only drank tea for breakfast and hadn't bothered making lunch, she pushed herself off the floor and went to her room to find something to wear. A few minutes later she came out wearing a dark blue spaghetti strap dress with a white fleecy sweater over top. It was a bit cold, but she didn't really feel like fishing out her jeans from the drawers she had just finished organizing.

She grabbed her purse and after making sure that she had everything she needed for her venture outside, Yuuki headed out the door and into town.

Several minutes had passed and Yuuki knew already knew that Namimori was a far cry from New York City. Not that there was anything wrong with New York, but it was just nice to take her time and not have to always rush alongside the crowds of people who always saw it fit to have to hurry every where they went.

Contrary to belief, not all New Yorkers were rude and obnoxious. They just didn't have the time to make sure that someone they accidentally bumped into was alright. Then again, they were some real jerks mixed in with the majority who used the excuse of having grown up within New York's busy streets to act condescending towards others.

As she walked, she noticed that other people were staring at her. She even saw three women whispering to each other as their eyes tracked her movements and while Yuuki pretended that she hadn't took notice, she felt uncomfortable.

Spotting a cafe that didn't seem busy, she quickly ducked inside. Perfect, maybe she could stay inside until the schools let out and grab a bite to eat all the meanwhile.

"School doesn't let out for another hour or so." A voice that had her looking up at the cashier said.

Staring at her was a tall man with green-black hair who she estimated to be in his early twenties. He was handsome, a bit gruff-looking with a scowl on his face even though his eyes didn't appear as angry as his face did. Yuuki flinched a little, but approached the cashier none the less. Her hunger at that moment was overwhelming her fear, which was voiced out loud by her stomach much to her embarrassment. The man raised an eyebrow at her blushing expression, but didn't say anything about it.

"Um," Yuuki's face was still red as she scanned the cakes on display, quickly trying to figure out what she wanted so she didn't have to stay in the man's presence any longer. "I'll have a strawberry shortcake as well as a chocolate cake and..." Her eyes landed on the menu behind him. "An orange pekoe tea please?"

"That will be 1450 yen."

Yuuki fished around in her purse for her wallet and handed over a bill. He handed her back the correct change and taking the two slices of cake he gave her, she went to seat herself at a table that was on the right side of the room.

Biting into the strawberry shortcake, a burst of flavour exploded in her mouth that had her instantly craving for more. The cake was so good!

As she stuffed her face with more dessert, the man came and set down the tea in front of her. She thanked him before continuing on devouring her chocolate cake and finishing it off with the tea.

"What are you doing here?" The cashier asked. Yuuki gave him a questioning gaze and he clarified his statement for her. "None of the schools let out yet and you aren't in uniform."

"Oh." He did have a point; that was probably why people were staring at her. Schooling in Japan was taken very seriously as everything depended on your GPA, such as which high school or college you would get into. "I... I'm not going to school yet."

She saw him staring at her and decided to continue. She wanted to talk to someone but at the same time she didn't; that was probably one of the reasons she had gone outside of her apartment. The silence had been deafening and there was no one to talk to short of knocking on one of her neighbour's doors and deciding to get really friendly with them because of boredom.

"I just moved from America and my parents wanted me to adjust to Japan before school started."

"...I see."

There was silence with neither of them saying anything before Yuuki couldn't take it any more and decided to try and initiate another conversation.

"So do you mind if I get your name?" She asked.

"...Shindou." He replied.

"Oh," Yuuki bit her lip, trying to search for something else to say. "Is that your first name or last?"

"It's my last."

She wanted to ask what his first name was, but the intimidating glance he shot her said that she better not if she knew what was good for her.

As Yuuki stared at the cup she was fiddling with in her hands, she couldn't help but wonder why she was more at ease with the stoic guy at the counter than her concerned family. Probably because he wasn't always asking her questions...

She smiled to herself. Right now, it was a bit of a reverse situation. She was the one asking questions while he answered with as few words as possible. Her eyes wandered the room and landed on the door. She recalled, just seconds before she had entered the cafe, seeing a 'Help Wanted' sign at the front. Glancing over at the cashier, she decided that she needed to work up the nerve and ask him.

"...Shindou-san?" Yuuki said, remembering than the suffix '-san' was the best to use when referring to anyone if you were unsure how to address them. "I wanted to ask about the sign at the front of the store?"

While she had been busy contemplating on whether she should ask about the sign or not, Shindou had been polishing a glass cup. Now he set it down and was watching her, making her even more unnerved than she already was.

"Do you have any experience in working?" He asked.

Yuuki nodded her head. "Um, yes. I used to work in a cafe like this one before I came to Japan." She paused. "If you want, I can bring in a resume."

Unconsciously the girl gripped the cup in her hands even tighter. It was true she had worked in a cafe, but she could only recall the past three months. Hopefully, he wouldn't ask to many questions about that.

The reason why she wanted to get a job was so she could help her parents pay off the bills. She knew that they would protest to the idea, but she had been enough of a burden for half a year so the least she could do was make things easier for everyone by doing her part and the only way she saw how was by earning money herself.

And to do that, you needed a job.

"It's fine." And the man was back to polishing the glass. After a few minutes, he finally said, "Come by tomorrow at around two and we'll see how you do."

Oh, so he wanted to see her at work himself? That could work, she mused.

Picking up her used dishes, she dropped them off at the counter so that Shindou wouldn't have to come around and get them himself.

"Thanks for the meal." She said, bowing. "It was delicious."

0000

Yuuki eventually found herself seated on a bench at the park eating a chocolate ice cream several hours later. She had already dropped off all the groceries she had bought at home but had found the need to go outside again as she already been stuck in the house for days. So the girl had decided that she should go out and enjoy the day more before it got dark.

Not having any place specific to go, Yuuki just wandered around aimlessly as she noted the areas that seemed interesting and that she should look into more later on when she had time.

Looking down at the shoes she was wearing for her day out, Yuuki sighed. What in the world had made her decide to wear heels while she was walking all over the place? Granted that they weren't very high and they matched the dress she was wearing, but still...

She rubbed her sore feet and stretched her legs to prevent them from falling asleep on her. It wasn't a pleasant feeling at all.

As she continued to eat her ice cream, she watched the kids playing on the play ground and the various people who passed her on the bench. She couldn't help but envy them since at least they knew who they really were. The only thing they had to worry about what was in store for them in the future.

But for Yuuki, how in the world was she supposed to face what would come when she couldn't even remember her past? What had she been like? How could she shape a future from only months of experience in the real world?

It was agonizing having to re-learn the names of people and connect those identities to those had she known before and couldn't remember. After an incident in which she found out that someone who had said they had been her 'friend' before the accident had been using her the entire time, Yuuki had found herself unable to trust people easily anymore. Of course, that had been another painful situation for her family when she kept glaring at them suspiciously until they were able to convince her otherwise.

Finishing up her ice cream, she wiped her hands with the tissue that had been provided for her by the vendor and threw it in the garbage.

But that was why she had agreed to come to Namimori in the first place. So that she could learn more about herself and past.

While she was musing about this, Yuuki was also staring up at the blue sky that seemed so much closer than it ever did in New York. And this was probably why she ended up crashing into someone just as she turned the corner at the estimated time she was supposed to when she looked down the street for a fraction of a second earlier. This caused her to trip on her heels and then fall against the person she had walked into, bringing the both of them down hard onto the pavement.

"Tenth!" A loud voice shouted at the same time another one said, "Tsuna!"

Yuuki groaned and was surprised that it was echoed by a second one that obviously came from a boy. But before she could think about that, the person with the loud voice was shouting at her.

"You! How dare you crash into the Tenth!"

"Now, now. I'm sure that she didn't mean... it..." The second voice that was defending her trailed off.

"Ow..." Yuuki ignored them, more concerned about her sore body for the moment. With a quick mental check, she determined she'd have to look at her knees later on.

Feeling something shift beneath her, she looked down and saw the person thar she had obviously knocked over.

"Ahh!" Yuuki immediately jumped up onto her feet, her face turning a bright red scarlet. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

Her unfortunate victim was a boy with brown spiky hair. He was wearing a dark blazer with a black tie and matching black pants; she wasn't sure what school he went to, but she was certain that it wasn't the one she would be going to next week.

"Yeah," The boy said, his eyes still closed as he rubbed his head. "I'm okay."

He opened his eyes to look up at her...

...and stared.

Still concerned despite the unnerving gaze, Yuuki reached out and grabbed the hand he was holding out towards her wordlessly. "Here, let me help you."

Gripping tightly, she yanked him onto his feet. He was still staring at her, but Yuuki pretended not to notice like she had been doing at her old school in New York when she had become the target of school gossip. She had gotten good with poker expressions over the months.

"I'm sorry about crashing into you like that, I should have been paying more attention to where I was going." Yuuki was babbling, she knew that. But it wasn't just the boy she had helped up who was looking at her like she was some sort of oddity; his friends were too.

The silver haired boy with green eyes (she wondered if he was foreigner or had foreign blood in him) just blinked at her with his mouth slightly open while the dark haired boy who had a baseball bat slung over his shoulder was full out gaping at her.

She quickly looked over the brunet; he looked okay, so she didn't have to worry too much about him being badly hurt or anything. "Um, are you sure you're not hurt?" She asked anyways, just to be on the safe side.

"Oh, uh, yes!" He snapped out of his trance. "I'm... yeah... I'm okay." He stumbled over his words.

"Alright." Yuuki smiled at him, though it faded a little when he flinched. "Then I'll be on my way then."

She quickly walked around him and his friends and hurried away. But even as she turned the corner, she could still feel their stares and quickened her pace until she was in front of the main doors of her apartment. By then, she was out of breath and resting against the glass door as she allowed herself to relax. What was up with them? Why were they staring at her like that?

Did they know her?

Yuuki placed her head in her hands. Great, she just let an opportunity slip through her fingers. WHY didn't she stick around and ask?

But as soon as that thought crossed her mind, Yuuki quickly vanquished it. She could imagine how crazy she would seem asking if they knew her due to memory loss.

Removing her keys from her purse to open the door, she put the thought to the back of her mind for the time being. She already had enough on her plate without asking for more.

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><p><strong>Hmm... didn't think the chapter would be this long. Oh well, all the more for you to enjoy it, right? Though there wasn't much in drama and action in chapter two... well, except around the end. <strong>

**Anyone recognize what other manga Shindou comes from? Consider him and the other characters an alternate version from the manga they originally came from!  
><strong>

**Anyways, tell me what you guys think! I really want to hear your opinions. Meaning, don't forget to review!**


	3. Chapter Two

**Hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter. This is the same day that I finished Chapter One, but for some reason I have this sudden urge to write the third chapter even though I should wait. And yeah, still feel like taking a break from The Guardian Angel. Sorry about that. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. I do, however, own Yuuki. **

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><p><strong>Chapter Two <strong>

Tsunayoshi Sawada yawned as he stumbled towards his chair, nearly missing his seat and falling onto the floor. He sat down and yawned again as he tried to clear the sleep out of his system.

"Good morning, Tsu-kun!" His mother greeted him cheerfully from the stove as she deposited a yellow omelet onto a plate that already contained a pile of them.

"Good morning, Okaa-san."

Though it hadn't been that great of a morning for him, Tsuna never the less returned the greeting before turning to his empty plate in front of him and getting some food for himself before it was all gone. Mornings at the Sawada household were hectic as usual, with the youngest members who continued to free load off of him arguing about not stealing from others' plates. Not that he minded any more since he had long grown used to it.

"What's the matter, Dame-Tsuna?" The last person who wanted to greet him asked. "Didn't get enough sleep?"

The boy glanced up in irritation, glaring at a black eyed baby who was staring at him with an expression that was the picture of angelic innocence. But having lived with him for nearly four years, he knew better than anyone that looks were deceiving. Particularly if they were chubby faced infants who addressed themselves as being your home tutor and their other infant friends.

"No." He said, immediately stabbing an omelet from the dish that his mother had just set down on the table and putting it on his plate. As much as Reborn was able to get a rise out of him every morning by either insulting him in some underhanded way or taking food from him when he wasn't looking, Tsuna felt that he wasn't up for it today.

Not when he had seen her face in his dreams all night.

Tsuna's stomach clenched and he forced himself to shovel even more food into his mouth. But it was too late as the memory of tears streaming down the devastated girl's cheeks lingered in his mind. Having lost most of his appetite, he quickly finished his meal and thanked his mother before going upstairs to get his things for school while ignoring the others' curious stare. He didn't want to keep his friends waiting.

Sure enough, Gokudera and Yamamoto were standing by the entrance. As soon as they saw him, their faces lit up and so did his own.

"Good morning, Tenth!" Gokudera, his Storm Guardian and right-hand man exclaimed.

"Yo Tsuna!" Yamamoto who was his Rain Guardian gave a more casual greeting.

"Good morning Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto." He greeted, a smile forming for the first time that morning.

Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto were polar opposites in both personality and appearance. While the former exhibited a 'bad boy' impression and had a temper that would result in dynamite being thrown at the unfortunate person who had the ire to piss him off, the latter was the all-around friendly good guy who could laugh things off easily and pat someone on the back. He was always toting his baseball bat around with him wherever he went.

Owing to his Italian heritage, Gokudera had silver hair and green eyes; physical traits that were paler when compared to the average japanese person. It was hard to tell he was a quarter Japanese unless you were told that he was. Yamamoto on the other hand was full blooded Japanese, having dark hair and equally dark eyes. Of course, his father owning a sushi shop also contributed to that image.

Where Gokudera constantly scowled, Yamamoto was always grinning. The only thing the two of them had in common was that they were both popular with the girls.

"Did you two remember to study for the math test today?" Yamamoto asked as they made their way to school.

"Of course I did!" Gokudera immediately snapped at him.

"Yeah." Tsuna nodded. How could he not know about the math test? Reborn had him study and get all the questions he gave him to answer and get correct at gun point, like he always did whenever there was a big test coming up.

But he had to admit, with Reborn's tutoring Tsuna had a feeling that he was going to be able to ace the test. Not because he had a good understanding of how to solve the equations or because the equations were burned into his brain, but because if he knew what was good for him he was going to pass that test with flying colours... or else.

Tsuna, once upon a time, used to be a normal boy. _Used to be. _Now seventeen years old, not only was he the Tenth but also one of the youngest mafia bosses of the strongest Italian family who had a history of four hundred years, the Vongola.

Ever since Reborn had gotten involved in Tsuna's life with the proclamation that he was going to be the Tenth boss of the mafia Vongola famiglia, his life had changed for the better... (he was reluctant to admit) and for worse. He now had two inseparable best friends for life who would always stick by his side through thick and thin and had gone through battles and trials that he was sure he would never had been able to accomplish as 'Dame-Tsuna' which had helped him be more confidant in life (though by not that much).

For pushing him to limits whenever he thought it was impossible and proving him wrong, Tsuna realized he was grateful for all of it now that he had a chance to look back.

But in return he had lost something that had been precious to him for a long time.

"Tsuna?" The boy's head snapped up to see Yamamoto staring at him with concern on his face. "Are you alright? You seem distracted."

Tsuna quickly shook his head and forced himself to smile. "It's nothing, just remembered... something."

Even though he didn't say anything else, Yamamoto and Gokudera traded glances with each other. They knew that whatever had crossed the Vongola Decimo's mind wasn't just nothing otherwise he wouldn't have such a melancholic expression on his face, but they couldn't force the answer out of him either. So they decided to leave the subject alone for now.

"Hey! We're near the school!" Yamamoto announced cheerfully. "We better hurry or-"

The baseball player cut himself off immediately and this had Gokudera and Tsuna looking up. Gokudera hissed under his breath while Tsuna's stomach did flips; today was really out to get him, wasn't it?

Standing several feet away from them was Kyoko Sasagawa who was also with several of her friends.

With her light coloured shoulder length hair, golden eyes and light complexion that matched with her kind personality, it didn't take a genius to figure out why she had been nominated the school idol in middle school and now high school by all the boys.

Tsuna couldn't refrain from groaning when he saw her. He didn't mind seeing Kyoko anymore since it had already been months since the... incident, but he wasn't looking forward to the reactions of her friends whenever they spotted him either. The only one who didn't give him grief about the whole thing was Hana Kurokawa who would often tell off Kyoko's other friends.

At that exact moment Kyoko turned in his direction and spotted him, their eyes locking together as they traded glances. She quickly hurried onto the school grounds and out of their sight with her friends shooting him very unfriendly looks when they also saw him. In retaliation, Gokudera brought out his dynamite which had the girls scurrying after her in fear of their health.

When they were gone, Tsuna let out a sigh he had no idea he had been holding and Yamamoto chuckled nervously.

"Still a bit awkward, huh?" The baseball player said, even though he already knew this. He had, after all, sternly told off a few girls about a week ago when they purposely tripped his friend.

"It's been months!" Gokudera muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets as they began walking to their classrooms. Like every year since their first year in middle school, the three of them had been in the same class. No doubt that it would be the same for their third and last year in Namimori high. "Why won't they let go of it already?"

Tsuna didn't say anything. The awkward situation between him and Kyoko didn't start until just days before the holidays when she had confessed her feelings for him behind the school.

If they had still been in middle school at the time, he would have jumped up in joy at the confession and returned the sentiment that would have likely ended up with them being boyfriend and girlfriend. But it had been years since he had been a middle school freshman and having to constantly deal with situations that came with being a future mafia boss and other things such as keeping up his grades, he didn't really have time to dwell on things like school crushes.

Not to mention, as Kyoko waited hopefully for his answer, he realized that he no longer felt the same way about her anymore. Gone was the tongue tied nervousness that had him stumbling over his words whenever he talked to her. Gone was the light headed feeling of being up in the clouds when she was nearby or whenever he saw her first thing in the morning smiling in his direction.

It was at that exact moment that he had been forced to look back and see that he hadn't thought about her for a long time. He remembered Yamamoto and even Gokudera asking him about why he didn't talk so much about his former crush as he used to.

He knew the answer then.

His strong feelings for Kyoko had died down to that akin of friendship. While he would still protect her if she was in danger or come to her rescue if she was in trouble, he had to face the facts that those emotions of being hopelessly in love with her weren't there anymore.

And so he forced himself to do the right thing even though he knew it would be hurtful to Kyoko.

Tsuna apologized, saying that he could not accept her feelings as he did not feel the same way about her and only thought of the girl as a good friend. He wasn't sure how to treat the situation as he never thought any girl would ever confess to him in his life. He realized that doing so would likely strain their friendship, but he also felt that she deserved the truth.

He also remembered being told at one point in his life that if he didn't feel the same towards the person, he was better off declining their confession rather than accepting as it would just end up being more painful in the long run.

After he said that, for a moment he thought he was back at the park on that day staring at the stunned expression on his childhood friend's face. Both her and Kyoko's expression had, for a mere few seconds, mirrored each other's so much that it felt like his heart was being crushed within some sort of invisible grip.

And even though Kyoko tried to remain strong in front of him as she stammered out an apology for wasting his time it still hurt to see her leave obviously trying to hold back tears.

With his Hyper Intuition, Tsuna could tell that his rejection had still been painful even though let her down as gently as he could. However, he thought he did the right thing in the end even though things had also been tense between him and his Sun Guardian, Ryohei Sasagawa, Kyoko's older brother for a little while.

Thank god for Suzume's intervention that day who understood the situation perfectly and tried to explain it to the boxer until her voice was hoarse and Ryohei wasn't out to beat him black and blue. Tsuna still got punched in the face, but he didn't protest the action of the angry older brother.

"Tsuna, you seem to be spacing out a lot today." Yamamoto pointed out when Tsuna had nearly tripped at the entrance of their classroom.

"Ah ha ha..." Tsuna's laugh came out hollowly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Am I?"

"Yeah, you've been really quiet." Yamamoto blinked, looking surprised.

Tsuna sighed, dropping his facade. "Sorry... I just have a lot of things on my mind."

That was the understatement of the year. It felt as if his brain was going to explode if he kept on delving back into the past.

"Is something bothering you, Tenth?" Gokudera asked, glancing over at Tsuna and trying to determine if he was ill or anything.

"Yeah." He muttered. "I guess you can say that."

But as much as his Guardians pestered him about it, he remained tight lipped on the subject.

0000

After school, Yamamoto had been insistent on the three of them hanging out somewhere just for fun. Tsuna could tell that his friend was doing this to take his mind off of things and he was grateful for it. Earlier he could hardly concentrate on his school work and on what the teacher was saying, but was able to through sheer force of will even though his head hurt a lot after wards. But with the excuse of his head hurting, he was also able to rest in the infirmary, skipping gym class. His friends met him there after school.

Eventually it was decided in the end that they would go out and see a movie. Tsuna couldn't remember what the title had been, but it involved giant robots duking it out in the city while the civilians were running around all over the place screaming their heads off hysterically.

"Ah, that was a good movie!" Yamamoto grinned as he stretched his arms.

"I couldn't hear what they were saying half the time thanks to you!" Gokudera snapped at him.

For most of the film, the baseball player had been laughing even at the parts that weren't supposed to be funny. This had gotten a lot of nasty stares thrown their way but as usual, Yamamoto hadn't noticed.

"But it was a funny movie!"

"There were mostly explosions in it! How the hell was it a funny movie?"

And then they were off again.

The brunet sighed as Gokudera shouted at Yamamoto and Yamamoto would just laugh in response. Why did they have to do this when they were walking on either side of him? But before Tsuna could soothe Gokudera's temper, something collided into him hard just as they turned the corner and knocked him back. He would have remained standing up had it not been for the other person tripping on their own feet bringing them both down.

"Tenth!" Gokudera had stopped yelling at Yamamoto when he had noticed that his boss was sprawled on the pavement at the same time as Yamamoto had shouted, "Tsuna!"

He groaned in response and heard the other person groan as well.

"You! How dare you crash into the Tenth!" Gokudera was shouting at the person. Before Tsuna could reassure his friend that he was alright, Yamamoto beat him to it.

"Now, now." He laughed. "I'm sure she didn't mean... it..."

Yamamoto trailed off at the end of the sentence and there was a long pause as even Gokudera went suddenly quiet. Tsuna had a sudden ominous foreboding.

"Ow," Said the other person. From the tone of their voice, it was definitely a girl. But there was something about that voice...

Tsuna tried to move, but it was hard since the girl who had knocked him down was still lying on top of him.

"Ahhh!" He felt the weight lift off him all of a sudden. "I'm so sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Tsuna said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm okay."

As soon as he opened his eyes he felt his blood freeze.

Standing right in front of him was Yuuki Kobayashi.

_No... it couldn't be, _Tsuna thought. Yuuki had moved to the States shortly after he had...

His mind shut down right there and then. He didn't want to remember that day ever again.

But he couldn't deny the strong resemblance between her and the girl standing right in front of him and peering down in concern. She reached down and grabbed his hand, pulling him up on to his feet while saying, "Here, let me help you."

She had Yuuki's voice. But it couldn't be her; she went to America right after their second year in middle school.

And besides, this girl was talking to him with no trace of emotion other than being concerned and making sure that nothing had been broken.

"I'm sorry about crashing into you like that, I should have been paying more attention to where I was going." She was talking, signalling that she seemed unnerved by something.

Tsuna glanced at his friends through the corner of his eyes and he could see their surprised expressions as well. Apparently they weren't the only ones who thought the girl was similar to her.

"Um, are you sure you're not hurt?"

Her voice snapped his attention back towards her.

"Oh, uh, yes!" He replied, slightly embarrassed. "I'm... yeah... I'm okay."

"Alright." And when she smiled and he automatically reacted by flinching. Her smile dropped slightly. "Then I'll be on my way then."

The girl walked around him at a fast pace of someone wanting to get away and immediately fled.

"Was that...?" Yamamoto didn't say her name. He knew that Yuuki was a very touch subject for Tsuna.

"T-tenth!" Gokudera was already on damage control. "That might have been someone else entirely!"

But Tsuna knew.

Auburn hair and hazel eyes and a voice that sounded similar if a bit mature than when he had last heard it...

There was no doubt in his mind that that girl had been his childhood friend Yuuki Kobayashi.

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><p><strong>Whew, I'd been inspired to write the first half of the chapter and typed like crazy to complete it but I was struggling a little with the second part. Hope you liked it and don't forget to review either!<strong>

**BTW, the whole Tsuna falling out of love with Kyoko? Yes, that type of thing can happen. There's also the fact that Kyoko had around over two hundred episodes and three hundred and fifty plus chapters to acknowledge Tsuna's feelings but didn't do so until years later. **

**As an online friend recently said, "You can't expect for the world to revolve around you. You have to move with it." **

**Also, Kyoko's situation sort of happened to me once but without the confessing. I didn't feel the same about the boy, but I didn't voice it out loud and eventually he moved on. So there.  
><strong>


	4. Chapter Three

**Alright, just updated The Guardian Angel and am now working on this fanfic while the inspiration is still there. Anyways, glad to have gotten a ton of reviews from you guys and I hope that you'll continue to review in the future. Thankfully for me, this story isn't going to be as long as the aforementioned story above is (and even I have no idea how many chapters it will be); probably between ten or twenty cause there isn't that much action to type out and I don't want to over stretch my self so yeah...**

**Also, go check out The Guardian Angel if you haven't. And leave a review!  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or Happy Cafe. I do, however, own Yuuki and any other OCs that will make an appearance.**

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><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

The first day of school was finally over and Yuuki found that she was a bit exhausted despite the fact that all of her lessons had taken place in a single classroom. Since the other students looked fine, the girl could easily contribute the stiff and soreness of her body to having to sit in the same spot most of the day. When the teacher left the room, she began stretching to get the blood circulating through her limbs again and shake the stiffness away.

Once again she was reminded of just how different the American and Japanese schooling systems were.

Earlier after first period had been a brutal example.

She had been confused as to why she hadn't been given a schedule as to where her second period class was and when the teacher had left the room, she turned to a fellow classmate who was sitting next to her and asked how they would know which class to go to take their next lesson. The boy she had asked had given her a strange look and said that they had five minutes till the next teacher would come in. Something in her expression must have told him that Yuuki had no idea what he was talking about, because he then elaborated that all their classes took place in a single room and it was the _teachers _who moved around, not the students.

Several of their classmates who had been listening in on their conversation had laughed when the auburn haired girl had nodded in mortification at her lack of basic school knowledge. So much for fitting in.

Yuuki could have sworn that her blush hadn't died down till the end of the last class of the day. Her cheeks burned when she kept remembering the event and she wished she had studied up the Japanese educational system, despite how embarrassing it was to have to look up information on her own culture even if she remembered nothing about it.

She had to remind herself that she was no longer in America since she still seemed to have the American mind set despite having been in the country she was originally born in for two weeks. Not that there was anything wrong with the American mind set, but using it to apply to situations in other countries with different cultures was kind of awkward; especially if you had physical features deeming that you were one of them. In her case, she looked Japanese and she spoke Japanese well but she certainly didn't act like a teenage girl who had lived in Japan for all her life.

Yuuki sighed as she adjusted the violin shoulder strap attached to the case on her shoulder. Hopefully, tomorrow would be better and everyone would forget her making a complete fool of herself earlier.

"Kobayashi-san?"She turned to face a girl who was a bit shorter than her and looked even smaller with her meek appearance from her two braids that lay on her shoulder to her glasses and the way she shrunk when Yuuki paid attention to her. "There's someone outside asking for you."

_'Hm?' _

Yuuki was confused. She didn't know anyone in the school and her classmates knew about her because of her culture crisis. But as far as she knew, no one else, much less someone from another class, would even know who she was.

_'Unless,' _Yuuki's heart sunk. _'People from this class were talking about me,' _

School gossip, it seemed, still followed her even though she was on the other side of the globe.

"Okay, thanks." She forced herself to smile at the classmate who had delivered the message before picking up her school bag and heading towards the door.

Leaning against the door way was a milk chocolate haired girl with brown-gold eyes. She looked bored, but once Yuuki came closer she stood up and began eying her with critical eyes. This lasted for half a second before the other girl reached out and took Yuuki by the arm and dragged her off forcefully. Yuuki could barely keep up with the girl, stumbling from time to time in her efforts to do so.

"Hey!" Yuuki said, indignant as she was dragged along like a rag doll. She was certain she had every right to be angry in this situation. "Where are you taking me?"

The other girl rolled her eyes. "Up to the roof so we can talk in private. I don't think you want anyone over hearing about your..." She lowered her voice. "...memory problems."

Yuuki felt her heart skip a beat at those last two words. _Memory problems _could easily be applied to the fact that she was for the most part amnesiac. But the thing was, how in the world did this girl know _that_?

By now, the girl had let go of her arm but Yuuki still followed her, curious about how the girl knew about her 'condition'.

When they finally reached the roof, Yuuki closed the door behind her and turned to the brunette who was just standing there and watching her.

"So how do you know about my... my... _condition_?" Yuuki wasn't sure if she wanted to use the word _amnesia _in front of this person.

"Your amnesia over the past six months?" The girl raised an eyebrow. "Easy. Maiko emailed me and Suzume, telling us to keep an eye on you about a week ago. But since Suzume goes to another school, I'm the only one who can do that when school's in session." She folded her arms across her chest. "You seriously don't remember anything?"

"My sister emailed you?" Yuuki relaxed slightly, but still kept her guard up. The girl didn't look like she was joking, but knowing her older sister's name didn't necessarily qualify as instant trust.

"Yeah. Suzume made me print out a copy of the email and bring a picture with me. She said that it was likely you weren't going to trust me right off the bat, so I needed proof." She reached into the pocket of her bag and pulled out what looked like a photograph and a folded piece of paper.

Yuuki unfolded the paper and low and behold was a message regarding her. The printed out sheet looked genuine and the girl's eyes scanned the top page to see that the sender of the email was indeed her beloved older sister. She then looked at the picture and blinked.

She and the girl who had given her the printed out email were posing for the camera that took the photo... alongside another girl who looked exactly like the one in front of her. Actually, she couldn't tell which girl was which since they both looked the same. They were younger in the photo, but it was definitely them.

"This is a picture of the two of us. And your twin sister?" Yuuki blushed as she realized how idiotic her question must have seemed. Who else would the other girl be? Even she knew two people who looked down right identical to each other were pretty much twins.

"Mm-hm." The girl nodded. "The girl who's next to you and standing in the middle is Suzume."

Yuuki examined the photo for a few minutes before finally looking up. "...alright. I believe you."

The girl rolled her amber eyes in exasperation. "About time. Seriously, were you always this cautious? You were so much more trusting back then."

Yuuki bristled at her words, her cheeks tingling with sure signs that her face was pretty much lit aflame. So what if she was much more trusting when she was friends with this girl back then? She hadn't been amnesiac and she figured she knew who to trust; unlike now when she had to be more alert to avoid an incident back in New York when she had been manipulated into humiliating someone in front of the whole school by the meanest girl and alpha bitch of a clique who everyone wanted to throw into the path of a fast speeding car.

"Well things were different." She said icily. A few seconds later, she blinked at just how cold her tone was. That was a first.

Even the girl was surprised, because she blinked and said, "Woah... looks like your personality evolved a lot more over these past few years. You know, we might be able to differentiate between you and Kyoko now."

"Kyoko?" Yuuki questioned.

The girl waved it off. "Some girl you used to know. Doesn't go to this school."

Yuuki decided to ask the one important question she should have asked at the beginning. "What's your name? You know, if we did know each other back then it would nice to know what I should call you."

The girl whose name she had yet to get was staring at her. "What has New York done to you?"

"Teach me that a majority of the girls at the school I went to are manipulative and backstabbing." Yuuki eyed her impatiently and switched topics. "You still haven't told me your name."

"It's Tsukishiro Tsubame."

"It's nice to finally know your name." Yuuki looked down at her watch and realized that she had ten minutes to get to Bonheur for her first day on the job. "Gah! I'm going to be late! I'll talk to you about this tomorrow!"

She quickly ran back inside the school.

0000

By the time she made it to the front of the cafe she was out of breath and three minutes late. She hoped that Shindou didn't mind and even though he seemed stern, she didn't think that he was the type to fire her just because she wasn't immediately on time by a few minutes. At least, Yuuki hoped so.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door tentatively and peered inside. "Sorry I'm late." She said, only to scream in startled surprise as something tall and heavy fell on top of her. Unable to support the weight, she toppled backwards hard onto her back, her violin case taking most of the blow for her.

"Ow..." She groaned.

She opened her eyes to see that what fell on her wasn't an 'It' but rather a 'him'. The 'him' in question was a silver haired male who was either in his last years of high school or his first year in college, judging by his height and facial structure. And somehow he had fallen asleep and was now lying on top of her.

And the only word she could use to describe him was that he was beautiful. Being called a pretty haired boy did not do him justice.

"Ichirou-kun, you can't fall asleep on our customers!" Instantly the heavy weight was lifted off of her and she found herself staring at a girl with light brown short hair who was peering down at her with concern.

This reminded her of the incident about a week ago when she had crashed into that boy, except the situation was reversed and she was the one on the ground.

"I'm so sorry!" The girl apologized as she continued to hold onto the sleeping boy. "Are you okay? Ichirou-kun didn't mean it; he does this sometimes... I mean he falls asleep, but doesn't fall on top of other people!"

"Um, it's okay?" Yuuki blinked. She then stood up and brushed herself off. She realized that she was taller than the girl who looked like she was in elementary school. Wasn't she a little too young to be working? "How old are you by the way?"

"I'm sixteen!"

Alright, she expected the girl to be in middle school but high school was kind of pushing it. Though she was definitely old enough to be working anyways.

"...I see."

"What's going on here?" An annoyed Shindou demanded as he walked out from the kitchen to find Yuuki standing and talking to the girl as the boy named Ichirou was still asleep and being held up by said girl. "Is he asleep?"

He was referring to the silver haired boy.

"Um... no... he's..." The girl quickly tried to think up an excuse as to why she was holding her co-worker up and his head was obviously bent down and his body slumped over. She did _not _want to tell Shindou that he was asleep.

"Kobayashi," Shindou said, startling her. "If you're here, go to the back and get changed. Your uniform is there."

Yuuki quickly nodded before running to the back of the room as fast as she could to get away from the awkward and tense scene. The last thing she heard was the girl letting out a startled exclamation on Yuuki being their new co-worker instead of a customer as she originally thought.

0000

When she was finished changing, Yuuki walked to where Shindou was to find out what she was going to be doing for her first day on the job.

Right after their first meeting Yuuki had come back to the store the next day at the exact time he had specified and got to work on the tasks he assigned her to do. She had to have a little help with the cash register since it was different from the one she was used to at her old job. Other than that, she had no problem doing the other things.

At the end, Shindou told her to come back when her school started so that she could meet her co-workers and start working. He also muttered under his breath that she seemed much more competent than the other two.

_'There doesn't seem like much to do though,' _Yuuki noted as the store was practically devoid of customers.

That was when she spotted the girl in the corner obviously waving at her.

It was Tsubame Tsukishiro.

"Do you know her?" Startled, Yuuki whirled around and bumped into someone. Blushing, she backed away and saw that it was the silver haired boy who had fallen on her earlier. He was eating chocolate covered snacks straight out of the bag, not at all caring that he was dropping crumbs on the floor. "She was asking if a girl with auburn hair wearing the same uniform as her came in."

Dusting off his hands, he whirled her around so that her back was facing him.

"Looks like the same uniform from behind." He stated.

"Um... uh... can you let go of me now?" Yuuki asked, her face turning even redder. To make things worse, Tsubame seemed to be laughing at her.

Ichirou's hands released her shoulders and she gave a visible sigh of relief.

"Kobayashi!" Shindou's voice made her jump and turn to face the green haired man who was scowling at her. "Give this to the person sitting at table eight."

He then shoved a chocolate cake and a cold glass of water into view and Yuuki quickly took it from the counter and went to deliver it. Table eight happened to be the table that Tsubame was occupying since Shindou had made her memorize the tables categorized by numbers before moving onto the next subject.

"Did you follow me?" Yuuki asked as she set down the girl's orders.

"Pretty much." Tsubame grinned, not at all feeling ashamed of the fact that her actions could be considered illegal. "It wasn't that hard considering you weren't even covering your tracks."

_'Why would I do that?' _Yuuki asked herself in her mind.

"So any reason _why _you followed me?"

"Just wanted to see where you work."

Yuuki huffed and was about to turn away and see what else she could do at the shop when a vice like grip on her arm stopped her.

"Oh, and I forgot to give you this. Suzume would've killed me if I forgot." She rifled through the things in her bag before finally pulling out a rectangle box.

"What is it?" Yuuki asked, turning the pink wrapped gift in her hands. At the top was a sticker that addressed that the gift was for her.

"It's a present. A birthday present." Tsubame gave her a strange look. "Don't tell me you forgot that today was your birthday?"

"My birthday...?" Yuuki blinked before realization washed over her. "Oh! My birthday! No, I didn't forget. I mean, I forgot that it was today but, um, yeah..." She trailed off quietly before quickly changing topics again. "Anyways, thanks. But I'm still on the job, so I have to get back to work..."

And tucking the gift into the pocket of her apron, she went to take over the counter as Shindou went to the kitchen to make more desserts.

0000

After Yuuki had given Tsubame her order, the store suddenly became more busy and livelier, leaving Yuuki had no time to dwell over the fact that she had turned seventeen that particular day and was reminded by the present she had been given by her... friend.

Fifteen minutes before the store closed Yuuki was sitting at a booth, exhausted. Taking orders and calculating numbers at the register wasn't strenuous, but the newness of it all after practically two weeks of mostly staying in her apartment was energy draining.

Her co-workers were at the back of the store, with her having been ordered to stay at the store front just in case some last minute customer came in and wanted to order something for the road (the store didn't seat customers half an hour before closing time). Yuuki didn't mind watching the store, since she didn't have to stand up, but it was still eerily empty even if she wasn't the only person in the store.

After the minute hand finally reached twelve, she went over to the door and flipped the sign so that it read 'Closed'.

"Koboyashi-san?" The girl who she originally thought was in junior high known as Uru Takamura was peering her head from the back room.

"Um, yes Takamura-san?"

The girl blushed slightly. "Can you come here in here please?" She then ducked back into the room closing the door behind her.

That was a bit strange, but Yuuki decided to do what her co-worker said anyways. Though she had no idea why the girl had to close the door behind her anyways.

When she opened the door and stepped through, she heard a pop and instantly found herself being covered in something. A closer examination of it as she extended her hand revealed that it was confetti.

"PHWEEE!" Yuuki whirled around (she seemed to be doing a lot of whirling and turning around in the store and it wasn't even the end of her first day yet) to see Ichirou holding onto the object that had blasted confetti at her with a noisemaker in his mouth. He was also wearing a party hat for some reason.

"What are you wearing?" Yuuki asked, blinking. Her gaze then landed on the middle of the room and she stared in disbelief, not quite believing what she was seeing.

Standing in the middle of the room and wearing a big grin was Uru, holding onto what looked like a small strawberry shortcake. A closer look and she saw that written in the middle of the white icing with red to fit the strawberry theme was: HAPPY SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY YUUKI.

"Eh?" Was all she could say after a few minutes of silence.

"You should have told us it was your birthday today! We would have made you a bigger cake but we didn't have the time!"

"B-but..." Yuuki's cheeks were burning full force and she wanted to melt onto the floor. "I just started working today! And how did you know it was my birthday, much less my seventeenth?"

Shindou, who was standing by the side with his arms folded across his chest, sighed and glared at the silver haired boy, "The idiot over there happened to be listening in on your conversation with that girl earlier. Then when you went away, he asked how old you were."

"Like I said, I just started working. I mean, it was nice of you to make the cake, but-"

She was cut off when Ichirou placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It doesn't matter if you started today or a year ago; you're still a member of Bonheure." He smiled. "And that's all that matters. What kind of people would we be if we didn't celebrate your birthday?"

"That's right!" Uru agreed, nodding.

Shindou sighed again. "I would have preferred to have more time to work on the cake."

Yuuki blinked several times as her eye sight began to blur. When she realized that she wouldn't be able to hold back the on coming tears anymore, she used the back of her hand to wipe them away.

"Kobayashi-san? What's wrong?" Uru's startled voice made her look up.

"It's nothing." And for the first time in a long time ever since that accident, Yuuki found herself smiling. It wasn't a fake, half-hearted smile but one she was sure was genuine and true.

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><p><strong>Wow, longest chapter so far but I finally got it done within a matter of days. You guys better appreciate it, and to show your appreciation you can do it by smiling. <strong>

**I hope I got the characterization of the Happy Cafe characters right, but I can't be too sure. Anyways, a picture of what Tsubame and Yuuki's school uniform looks like should be up on my profile page. So go and check it out if you want.  
><strong>

**BTW, have fun guessing why Yuuki got emotional at the end!**


	5. Chapter Four

**Don't worry, I'm still working on The Guardian Angel. The thing is, I just can't find the stupid brain juice for that particular story, so here I am working on this one and getting the plot and chapter out of the way in hopes that I'll be able to write up the next chapter. The chapters for these stories take usually only three to four days to write, depending on how many words I decide to contribute to the current chapter in one day. **

**So let's get started, hm?  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the KHR characters. I do, however, own Yuuki Kobayashi as well as Suzume and Tsubame Tsukishiro.**

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><p><strong>Chapter Four<strong>

Suzume Tsukishiro stared at Tsuna as she had been doing for the past few days.

It was now April fourth, three days after the start of their third and final year in high school. It hadn't been surprising to see Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto placed in the same homeroom as they had been every year since middle school. One thing she did find different was that Kyoko Sasagawa, the girl practically every boy at Namimori high wanted to date, wasn't in the class along side them.

There was no doubt in Suzume's mind that the baby hitman tutor Reborn had once again hi-jacked the school system (the faculty had long given up on the mystery of why certain students names kept being switched around) and did some modifying on his own. Now that she thought more about it, that was probably why _she _was in the same homeroom as them.

The brunette could guess why Tsuna's former love interest wasn't in the same class; it definitely had to do with the fact that Tsuna had told Kyoko he could not accept her feelings several months back.

News of Tsuna rejecting Kyoko had quickly spread throughout the school, leaving the two in question both embarrassed as those who used to go to junior high with them had been well aware of the former's major crush on Sasagawa back then. Many students were shocked, but the boys at the school quickly recovered and rejoiced at the news since that meant they now had a chance with the cute and bubbly school idol.

As the teacher droned on about math equations, Suzume twirled the mechanical pencil in her fingers twice and then looked down at her open notebook.

Much to her own surprise, she hadn't so much raised an eyebrow at Kyoko being rejected by the very boy who had used to fantasize about getting married to her. Probably a little more than when her fellow classmate and boss eventually had to let down another girl who went to a different school named Haru Miura who herself had a crush on him, but not by that much. Having several months to think about it, Suzume realized that Tsuna hadn't talked all that much about Kyoko and when he did, it was whenever someone else mentioned her.

He mostly focused on his studies, even more so when he officially became Vongola Decimo. And if he wasn't studying diligently, he was either training or going on missions with his Guardians.

When was it that Dame-Tsuna who couldn't do anything right even if his life depended on it became so mature and dependable?

Suzume couldn't help but giggle at the thought but the humour of it soon disappeared when she also remembered that it had been a long time since Tsuna had truly smiled from the bottom of his heart as well.

_'Probably ever since that day.'_ Suzume sighed.

After that _day_, many things had happened following after it in a downwards spiral. Tsubame and Suzume had nearly quit the Vongola until Reborn told them that resigning from the Mafia also meant they would be considered traitors and hunted down to the ends of the Earth. So they made a deal that their involvement with the famiglia would be suspended unless they were truly needed.

Eventually, Suzume returned to the Vongola but her twin sister, even though her anger had long died down, still could not forgive Tsuna for what he had done.

"Tsukishiro!" Suzume was forcefully jolted from her thoughts as she found herself staring into the angry eyes of her teacher. "What is so important that you aren't paying attention in my class?"

The first thing that came to mind slipped out of her lips. "My thoughts?"

Suzume found herself face first on her desk after something hard crashed on to the top of her head. She groaned as the teacher walked off, continuing from where he had left off.

0000

She decided to go to the roof top to eat. With her ninja speed, she was already there seconds after her fellow third years had stepped out into the hallway to go outside. It was Spring, and she decided that she would enjoy the crisp cool air while she still could before summer came and replaced it with over bearing heat.

She sat at the top of the roof house so that she'd be able to see who else would decide to join her at the top of the school... without them knowing that she was there of course.

Unwrapping her lunch, she removed the lid of her bento, preparing to devour her food. Her friends had always joked that lunch had been her favorite time of the day due to the amount of food she always ate. Not that it really bothered her since she was always able to work off her meal thanks to the training she and her sister often did so that they wouldn't get rusty.

As Suzume ate one of the three pieces of omelet her sister had packed for her, she heard the door to the roof open and quickly swallowed it as she tried to determine who it was.

"Huh. There's no one here."

Suzume frowned somewhat. Great. It was Yamamoto and you usually didn't see one without the other two, so that probably meant...

"We can see that you idiot!"

"Gokudera, please don't start!"

...Gokudera and Tsuna were with him._ Great._ Hopefully they wouldn't notice her being on the roof with them and would leave once it was time to go to class so she could make her great escape with them none the wiser.

Unlike her sister, Suzume no longer held that _incident _against him. Tsuna could have gone about the whole thing better, but his intentions were good. At least, they were supposed to be anyways. Both Tsubame and Suzume knew both first and second hand that his good intentions didn't produce the desired results.

It had the opposite effect; it made things worse.

But that wasn't the reason that she didn't want to see Tsuna.

She didn't want to explain to him that Yuuki was back in town. Even worse, that she had gotten in an accident and the only thing that she could remember since then was her own name. But she also secretly agreed with her sister that she didn't want to see that devastated, dead expression on their friend's face ever again.

"GAH!" Suzume heard Tsuna yell from below. This was followed by the smack of someone's head hitting hard surface. "Reborn!"

"Dame-Tsuna," A squeaky voice that Suzume instantly recognized as belonging to the baby hit man tutor Reborn. "You've been doing nothing but spacing out whenever you are at school or at home for more than a week. It's irritating."

"Is that why you kicked me?" Vongola Decimo shrieked.

_'Somethings never change,' _Suzume internally sighed. Tsuna was still as high strung as ever, even though she hadn't talked to him for a while. Actually, the last time she spoke with him was when she was doing damage control after the whole Confession Fiasco and Ryohei was pissed off at him for rejecting his younger sister and making her cry. She understood where the boxer was coming from, but she also knew that Tsuna had done the right thing overall.

Because if he _had_ agreed to go out with the school idol, _Suzume _would have been the one beating him up. It was never a good idea to go out with someone who you felt sorry for because you didn't like them the same way; it eventually led to even more heart break and probably a disillusioned view on the world.

Cheerful and bubbly Kyoko being disillusioned... now that was a scary thought. She should know; she had already seen a disillusioned Yuuki and that was something that could easily be compared to the apocalypse.

"Now speak." The tone in Reborn's voice had left no room for argument. "Something is obviously bothering you."

Suzume had been wondering about that too. She hadn't noticed it right away but for the past several days since they had moved up to their third and last year in high school, Tsuna hadn't been concentrating on his school work all that much. The girl knew that something was up since both Yamamoto and Gokudera took occasional glances at him as well, but concentrated on the class at hand for the most part. Well, Yamamoto at least. Gokudera's favorite subject seemed to be watching his Tenth's every move.

"Re-Reborn-san!" It was Gokudera. His respect for the baby seemed to outweigh his for Tsuna's a little more since he didn't call out the baby on occasionally abusing his student on a daily basis unlike any other poor fool who tried to do the same thing to Tsuna. "That probably isn't such a good idea!"

"Yeah, kid." Yamamoto was agreeing with the hot blooded silver haired boy. "It's maybe better if we don't talk about it."

_'Actually, it would be better if he **does** talk about it.' _

But what Reborn wanted, Reborn got. The baby hadn't replied to Tsuna's friends attempts to change the subject, but from the sounds of someone being beat up below, she could surmise what the sadistic fedora infant was doing at that exact moment.

"Speak."

A minute passed and Tsuna still didn't say a word.

"Um, Tsuna?" Yamamoto finally broke the silence, sounding hesitant and unsure. "Maybe you should tell the kid. He's going to find out eventually."

There was more silence when Tsuna finally spoke. "Fine."

Suzume blinked. Tsuna's voice when he had said that word sounded cold and eerily similar to when he was in Hyper Dying Will Mode. Whatever was bothering him that Reborn wanted him to confess about must have been a pretty big deal to him.

Tsuna let out a long sigh. "I saw Yuu-, Kobayashi-san, last week."

He saw Yuuki? He had _already _seen her? Did he mean to tell Suzume that she had been stressing for nearly two weeks about how to break it to him that his childhood friend was back in Namimori for _nothing_? And while _that _annoyed her, what annoyed her even more was that he had referred to Yuuki as 'Kobayashi-san' like she was someone he hadn't known for long.

"'Kobayashi-san?'"

"I no longer have a right to call her by her name." Tsuna's voice was downright cold but there was also something else.

Suzume's gaze softened at the declaration.

She had eventually realized that the whole ordeal had not been easy for the boy and it was a little saddening to hear just how affected he had been as well. Knowing Tsuna, he had probably punished himself far more than he had deserved over the years. That was the conclusion she drew from just how sad and tired he sounded when he declared he didn't have the right to refer to his childhood friend by her first name any more, anyways.

She wanted to jump down and give the poor Tuna a hug, but forced herself to remain still and listen.

"I see." Was all Reborn said and he didn't pursue the subject any further.

Tsuna was wrong. Reborn did have a compassionate side to him after all.

There was an awkward silence until Reborn spoke again.

"Suzume, I already know that you're there. I suppose you know something about this?"

Nothing got past the baby, did it? Rolling her eyes, Suzume wrapped up her partly eaten bento and jumped down so that she was now on the same level with the three boys.

"You were there the entire time?" Gokudera was practically screeching.

"I was here first." Suzume said stubbornly, making her way to the door that led inside the school. Yamamoto and Tsuna edged to the side to allow her to get through. "And if you're wondering why I didn't tell you about Yuuki earlier, it's because I didn't want you to see her."

She slammed the door behind her, pretending she hadn't seen the look of hurt on Tsuna's face.

It was true that she didn't want to Tsuna to meet with Yuuki again, but not because she was afraid of him hurting her again. Okay, maybe she was a little afraid of that. But in this case, it was more of she didn't want to see that same hurt expression on his face she had just seen when he would find out that Yuuki didn't even remember him.

Suzume knew that it was inevitable, but she'd like to stall for as long as she could.

0000

_She read the email for what had to be the (thirtieth? Fortieth?_) _time__ since it's presence had been alerted by __her MSN. She knew that she hadn't mistranslated the email, but still... maybe she had read wrong? _

_But no matter how many times her eyes scanned the words over and over, she knew that her eyes weren't deceiving her. Still it was hard to digest, but then again she hadn't seen the results for herself. Though it was an explanation as to why Yuuki had stopped emailing her six months back. _

_According to Maiko, Yuuki had gotten in an accident and since then she couldn't remember a single thing prior to what had caused her memory loss in the first place.__ She was hospitalized for a few more days since she woke up, but was then released once the doctors said it was okay.__ Since then, she'd been trying to get a handle back on reality but was finding it difficult to do so. It didn't help that the rest of the family was hurt whenever she was unable to remember anything of significance. _

_But to tell what had happened to Yuuki wasn't the reason why Maiko had emailed her. _

_No. She wanted Suzume and Tsubame to keep an eye on her since Yuuki was returning to Namimori but she was going to be living on her own.  
><em>

_Suzume wondered why anyone in their right mind, especially her family, would allow an amnesiac to live on her own until she read the next part regarding that. Apparently, it was thought that maybe living in the hometown she was originally born in would help jog her memory. And even though the rest of the family hadn't said it out loud, also to give themselves a break from the awkwardness that had settled over them the past few months._

_"You've been reading that email for about half an hour." Tsubame came into the room, chomping on a carrot stick. "What's so interesting about it?" _

_"Well..." How was she supposed to explain this to her sister?_

0000

Suzume ignored the stares sent in her direction by the three boys she had eavesdropped on during lunch. She had no right to complain since not only had she been listening in on them when they were supposed to be having a conversation amongst themselves, but also because her departing words had been less than kind.

So when school ended, she hadn't been surprised to see them getting ready to stop her at the door and make sure that she couldn't get away; not until they got their answers.

"Look, I'm not going to try and run." Suzume sighed in the face of Gokudera's killer glare that would have had any sane person running in the opposite direction breaking world records.

"Good. Because I was planning on chasing you down if you did." Even though his hands were stuffed in his pockets, Suzume could tell that he was fingering the dynamite that he wouldn't have hesitated to throw at her even though they were at school.

After fifteen minutes of arguing, they decided to go to the nearby MacDonald's and talk about things there. After they had all gotten their meals (Suzume purposely being last) they ate in silence for five minutes until Reborn, who had tagged along by sitting on Yamamoto's shoulder, spoke up.

"How long has she been in Namimori?" The baby asked.

Suzume was still munching on her Fish Filet burger, so she didn't answer immediately. Once she was done, she took a long sip of her drink and set it down on the table.

"Two weeks."

Reborn frowned. "How long have you known?"

"A day after she arrived and settled in." She took a bite of one of her fries.

"And you didn't think to say anything?" Gokudera hissed. Yamamoto didn't look exactly happy either, but he wisely kept his mouth shut so that he would get the whole story before making judgments. "Why didn't you tell the Tenth? He's the one who has every right to-"

"I didn't say anything," Suzume interrupted coolly, "because last time I checked, you wanted nothing to do with her."

Tsuna flinched, as if someone had slapped him hard across the face. Yamamoto winced but still maintained his silence and even Gokudera didn't know what to say to that. With a dark smile, Suzume bit into her burger and continued eating. That had been an underhanded blow, but one that she felt they deserved over the years.

"...what school does she go to?" Reborn asked.

"Suzaku Private High School."

Tsubame was going to be really angry that Suzume had even told them this much, but she put that thought aside for now.

"Look, do you want the filet or the nuggets?" Someone very familiar to Suzume said from near the front of the store.

...

Speak of the devil.

"I guess the filet?" Said a second voice.

"Huh, that was always what you picked out before. Kay, filet it is."

Had she been doomed to prevent drama from the get go? Suzume glanced up and saw that it was indeed her idiotic twin sister and friend (were they still friends when one of them couldn't even remember their friendship in the first place?) standing by the register and ordering food.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who heard Tsubame and Yuuki talking as everyone at her table had looked up and were now staring at them.

Today was definitely going to be a rough one.

As if sensing their stares, Yuuki looked looked back in their direction. Her eyes landed on Suzume for several seconds before turning back to Tsubame, wide eyed. Her gaze between the two switched between them several times.

"Hey Tsubame, is that your sister Suzume?"

"Huh?" Tsubame had their orders on the tray she was carrying and she turned to see where Yuuki was pointing. She raised an eyebrow at Suzume, but when her eyes swept all over the group of people she was sitting in, they narrowed.

"Yeah, it is." Tsubame said, turning her back on them. "C'mon. Let's go find a seat."

"There's a table right next to them. Why don't we take it?"

"Nah. Let's find another one."

Yuuki frowned. "But the tables in the direction you're going are all full. Why don't we just go sit next to your sister?"

Tsubame took a look around their surrounding area and realized that she was right. With a scowl on her face, she trailed after Yuuki reluctantly. Yuuki had gotten tired of the girl's excuses as to why they should not sit next to Suzume and had decided to walk over there herself anyways.

Crap. It was now official that fate was conspiring against her today.

Yuuki sat down at the nearby table. She glanced over at the frozen Tsuna and the tense Gokudera and Yamamoto and gave them a shy smile before focusing her attention on to the less than happy Tsubame. Reborn, as usual, remained as neutral as ever.

Alright. It was now or never and she couldn't turn back now. She just hoped they wouldn't hate her _too much. _

"Hey Yuuki, long time no see! I'm sure my sister has told you a few things about me." Suzume smiled. "I should probably introduce you to these guys." She gestured to the boys.

Suzume's eyes met Tsuna's own confused and hurt ones. She gave him an apologetic smile before turning back to Yuuki.

"Okay the silver haired guy is Gokudera Hayato, but just call him Gokudera." She pointed to the silver haired boy before gesturing to the baseball player. "This is Yamamoto Takeshi, but again call him Yamamoto."

Gokudera was giving her a 'What the HELL?' are you talking about stare. Yamamoto looked confused as well but he hid it well behind his grin, going as far as saying 'hi' to Yuuki like they were truly being introduced for the first time.

"This fedora dressed Baby is named Reborn. Don't let his cuddly looks fool you; he's lethal." Reborn tilted his hat over his eyes.

And finally her gaze landed on Tsuna and softened. Introducing him was going to be the hardest thing to do and even though Suzume was fully aware of how cruel she was being, this had to be done. She took a deep breath and forced herself to smile.

"And this guy is Sawada Tsunayoshi!" She leaned over and messed up his hair, purposely giving him a reassuring ruffle. "But we call him Tsuna!"

"Oh!" Yuuki said. She looked at the three boys for a few seconds before introducing herself. She smiled at them, albeit a bit sadly. "My name's Yuuki Kobaya-" She paused and corrected herself. "I mean, Kobayashi Yuuki. It's nice to meet you."

There was silence that Suzume quickly remedied by kicking Tsuna under the table.

"I-it's nice to meet you as well." Tsuna's voice cracked and the agonizing hurt was visible in his eyes. "Kobayashi-san."

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><p><strong>And that's the end of this chapter. Now Tsuna knows about his childhood friend being amnesiac and no longer remembering him. Wonder what'll happen in the next chapter? Heh, that's for me to know and for you to find out!<strong>


	6. Chapter Five

**Whoo, I've been itching to type this up for days but for some reason I was always procrastinating. Dunno why... maybe because I was distracted by the internet? Geez... maybe I'm delving a little too much into the essay that my English teacher has everyone in class reading. For the record, I hate class discussions. I'm so used to sitting in the corner and listening to other people's conversations. **

**BTW, I have a question for you readers. Do I seem a little biased towards Kyoko? I mean, I try not to and I don't think I am but I want an outsider's view on this.**

**Also... do you want me to bring the Shimon famiglia into this fic? They aren't going to make a huge appearance, but you get the picture don't you?  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. I do, however, own Yuuki, Suzume and Tsubame.**

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><p><strong>Chapter Five<strong>

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Gokudera burst out.

The evening sky was tinged a mirage of red and orange as they arrived at the park. Suzume knew that after the unexpected McDonald's meeting with Yuuki and her own stupid twin sister she was going to beat once they got home, she was going to have to completely spill everything she knew concerning the auburn haired girl. She hoped that Tsubame would be able to deal with things on Yuuki's side (her sister may have matured considerably over the years from the transition of middle school to high school but she could still be incredibly insensitive at times).

And even though she knew she shouldn't be playfully teasing them, Suzume couldn't help but ask the Hurricane Bomber dryly, "Would do you mean?"

"Kobayashi!" He snarled. "What the hell was she up to? Pretending that she didn't know us so that she could hurt Tenth just because-"

Gokudera was cut off by the sound of something cutting into the air and a loud clang. When they turned to see what it was, they saw a sharp kunai knife lying on the ground right next to a pole. It was pretty obvious who had thrown it since there was only one ninja within the vicinity.

"...Gokudera." Suzume's voice wasn't cold, but there was a cool edge in it that said if the boy knew what was good for him then he wouldn't continue on with that sentence.

Suzume may not have been as hot headed or battle thirsty as her twin, but she was definitely dangerous. Possibly more so than the aggressive Tsubame since once her temper was set off, no one could predict what would happen next to the unfortunate person or people. Thankfully, it was easier to calm her down as well.

"But what _was_ that?" Yamamoto asked in place of a fuming Gokudera. "Why was Yuuki-chan pretending that she didn't know us?"

The ninja smiled sadly. They were still in denial. Time to rudely bring them out from that stage then.

"Who said she was pretending?" She waited until the three boys and baby were all paying attention to her.

"Of course she is!" Gokudera growled. "Why the hell else would she act as if the Tenth was a complete stranger?"

Suzume could already tell that it was going to take some time to break it to them that Yuuki was not pretending to be amnesiac. But before she could counter Gokudera, several things whizzed past her and landed in the space right between her and her classmates. She didn't even have to look at the thrown projectiles to identify who had thrown them.

"Tsubame, if you're going to talk then come down from wherever you're hiding!" Tsubame had gotten back from escorting Yuuki home faster than Suzume anticipated.

Within seconds said twin sister was standing right next to Suzume.

An easy task if you were a ninja.

"Yo! Your older sister is here!"

"And yet you act as if you're five years my junior."

"Hey!" Tsubame balked at the comment before shaking her head and getting back on topic. "Anyways..."

She eyed Gokudera contemptuously.

"Are you seriously telling me you think Yuuki is 'pretending' to not know you?"

"Then what is it?" A rough sounding voice cut in.

They all turned to face Tsuna. His eyes were facing downwards and he looked tired and drained, as if the weight of the entire world was on his shoulders. No... he looked defeated. Even Tsubame, who still didn't want to be around the boy unless it was absolutely necessary, could feel a stab of pity for him. The sharp words she had ready to throw at him died down before they reached her throat.

The others glanced at each other, unsure as to what to say to him.

"Why? Why did Yuu..ki... act like that?" Tsuna's eyes were shadowed. He had stumbled over her name and the unmistakable tone of someone about to cry was there.

"Well... because..." Suzume faltered at the expression on the brunet's face and they were back to being surrounded by deafening silence. Why was this so hard to do?

"Fine! I'll do this!" Tsubame pushed past her sister. "I'll explain this as simple as I can so that even you get it!"

"Tsubame!" Suzume moved forward to attempt to stop her sister.

Tsubame and the words 'as delicately as possible' did not go together well in a sentence. But Tsubame side stepped her twin, grabbed her arm and then pinned her into the ground face first so that Suzume couldn't interrupt her.

She looked up at the boys and glared at them, her eyes narrowing. "Alright, listen up because I'm only going to say this once, idiots." She paused to give them time and then said, "Yuuki is not 'pretending' or 'acting' like she doesn't know you. She has amnesia therefore she has a pretty damned good excuse as to why she views you as being complete strangers."

Silence engulfed the park as those who didn't know before digested the information.

"She has... amnesia?" Yamamoto was rubbing the back of his head.

"She lost all her memories." Tsubame snorted. "She doesn't remember anything prior to the accident. So memories of you, me and everything else are gone. Vanished. Buh-bye."

Suzume then shoved Tsubame off of her, tackling her sister and hitting pinning her to the ground.

"You couldn't have been a little more subtle?" Suzume growled.

"Unlike you, I don't sugar coat the situation!"

"I wasn't sugar coating it! I was trying to explain it in the least painful way possible! I actually try to consider other people's feelings, something you haven't learned to do yet even though you're in your last year of high school!"

"That's just a long drawn out sentence to describe sugar coating!"

"I'm not sugar coating! At least I don't make other people cry with her insensitivity!"

The twins were rolling around on the ground, wrestling as they vented their different views and what they found wrong with the other. Normally this would have been a situation that they would have found hilarious, albeit exasperating, but under the circumstances no one was amused.

A shot rang out through the air and both twins stopped fighting and turned to the source of the noise; Tsubame straddling Suzume, hands pinning the latter's arms so that she couldn't strangle her.

"Enough. Now continue explaining." Leon had transformed into a gun and the baby hitman's hat was tilted down, telling them that he was serious and they better get their act together... or else.

Suzume and Tsubame diverted their gazes from the baby to give each other equally identical deadpan expressions. They wanted to continue their argument as to why the other person's view sucked, but _no one _went against Reborn's word. There was a reason why he was called the greatest hitman in the world.

Tsubame got off of her sister and brushed herself off, shooting a glare at the baby.

"There isn't much to explain except that the accident that caused the amnesia was six months ago. She can operate like a normal person, but ever since she lost her memories she's different than the Yuuki we know. Or used to know, at least."

"She seemed the same to me." Yamamoto stated, his eyebrows knit in confusion.

Tsubame stared at him blankly. "That's because you haven't been attending the same school as her. We go to different schools now in case you haven't noticed."

She gestured to the white sailor top with black outline and a large pink bow. Accompanying it was a black skirt with white line running across the hem. It was the same one Yuuki had been wearing the only difference being the colour of their socks; Tsubame wearing black while Yuuki wore white.

"So she remembers nothing?" Reborn asked, glancing at his student. Tsuna seemed incapable of speech, staring blankly at the ground.

Suzume shook her head. "No."

She went up to Tsuna.

"I'm sorry Tsuna. I was going to tell you eventually, but that wasn't how I was planning on breaking it to you."

0000

When lunch time came around, Yuuki immediately went up to the roof only taking with her the bento she packed herself and her violin.

Earlier during classes, she could hardly concentrate on what the teachers were saying and had to put in extra effort to be able to pay attention. But as she forced herself to write notes, yesterday's events wouldn't leave her mind. Particularly that boy...

Yuuki frowned.

Tsunayoshi Sawada... Tsuna...

She could have sworn she felt a vein popping up from behind her head. It was because of _him _that she had hardly gotten any sleep yesterday! That... that...

Yuuki shoveled two pieces of omelet into her mouth and furiously chewed on it for several seconds before swallowing. She nearly choked at eating so fast, but she persevered. Though now she wasn't so hungry anymore...

With a sigh, she closed up the bento box promising herself that she would finish the remainders of her lunch before going to work.

Opening up the violin case, she pulled out the violin she had discovered under her bed about a month and a half ago. She might as well try and play something, right? But since she didn't bring any of the sheet music with her, she'd have to wing it.

Just as the bow touched the strings, that boy's face flashed through her mind. "Wha-?"

Why in the world did she keep _thinking _about him?

She wasn't stupid. Even though he had smiled at her when she had introduced herself to him, she could see the devastated hurt in his eyes. The same hurt she had seen in her parents and her brothers' eyes when she couldn't recognize them at first and had to say their names several times before she finally got it. She saw the forced smile on Suzume's face, as well as heard the fake light-hearted tone in her voice as she introduced the boys they met at McDonald's. Even if Suzume had been friendly and welcoming, Yuuki could tell she wasn't wanted there.

It wasn't hard to sense the tense and heavy atmosphere. She had gone through it all before and had plenty of practice at both reading the surroundings and people.

She shouldn't have agreed to go to the fast food place with Tsubame. She had gotten to see the infamous Suzume that Tsubame always complained about on a daily basis, but yesterday's meeting had been very _awkward. _Though Suzume made light talk of trivial subjects, the answers she got in return were terse and brief to the point.

The boy named Yamamoto was the only one who energetically and enthusiastically answered back to Suzume, but once again the enthusiasm was forced to try and deviate the awkwardness of the whole situation.

Another thing that made Yuuki uncomfortable was the baby. There were several things very... unusual... about the baby. First of all, he was clad in a black suit and wearing a fedora. Second was that the baby was standing upright and talking like an adult and the third and final thing that threw her off was his black eyes. His coal black eyes that seemed to pierce right through her physical shell down to her very soul. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the baby with Suzume was no ordinary infant.

Yuuki shook her head to try and clear her thoughts. Clutching the violin tightly, she ran the bow across its strings.

For two minutes she just played individual notes in experimentation. She could play that song she played when she first discovered the instrument under her bed called Servant of Evil again, but she wasn't in the mood. As the strings sounded out notes, she found herself piercing them together into longer ones. The bow ran across the strings faster and faster and the next thing Yuuki knew, she was playing something she knew was an actual song. The longer she played the sad tune, she realized that whatever music she brought to life depended on her mood.

That would probably explain why she had difficulty playing the more happier pieces. It had been a while since she actually _had _been happy.

Lost in the music, was able to recall the name of the piece:

Sad Romance.

Yuuki closed her eyes so she wouldn't be distracted, allowing her hands and fingers to move on their own.

Was this how she felt? Under the illusion of trying to keep everyone around her happy, while she secretly dwelt in misery? Yuuki instantly banished the thought from her mind, feeling disgusted with herself.

She had been selfish for the past few months expecting people to take pity on her because she no longer knew who she was. And when they did give it to her, she could feel nothing but irritation towards them as she felt they were being condescending towards her because they felt sorry for the amnesiac girl.

Yuuki was forcefully woken up when she played a wrong note. The loud screech made her wince and she decided that she had played enough. Kneeling down, she placed the violin back into its case with the bow right next to it before slamming the lid shut.

Someone clapped and Yuuki looked up sharply to see Tsubame standing a few feet away from her.

"How long have you been there?" Yuuki asked, no longer surprised with her friend's annoying ability to just seemingly pop out of nowhere ever since Tsubame explained that she and Suzume had descended from a line of ninjas.

"When you started playing that song." Tsubame shrugged. "You've gotten better, though you were always good at playing the violin. And the piano."

She used to play the piano? That wasn't surprising since her dad was a pianist who made a living off of playing a piano at concerts.

"But geez... it's a pretty sad song. Out of all the ones you could have chosen to play, why that one?"

"I didn't choose to play it."

There was silence as Tsubame tried to comprehend what Yuuki meant by that.

"So then _how _did you play it if you didn't intentionally choose to?"

Yuuki sighed. The only explanation she could come up with as to how she was suddenly playing a song she had no recollection was sounded cheesy and pretty out there that any sane person would clutch their stomachs and start laughing. But seeing Tsubame's steady gaze told her that she wasn't going to be able to worm her way out of this one.

"It comes to me... instinctively?" She paused, being careful to word what she said next. "I mean, I was just playing the violin when the song came to me. My hands moved on their own when I played that piece."

She waited for the laughter but it never came.

Instead Tsubame looked quite lucid as if she was deep in thought about something.

Finally, she said, "I see. You probably already knew the songs in the past and your hands were just playing them through muscle memory."

"...probably." It wasn't like Yuuki could come up with any better theory herself.

"So..." Tsubame drawled as she went to the edge of the roof, leaning against the railing that prevent any accidental roof incidents. Now if the person chose to jump off the roof intentionally, that was a whole other story. "I'm guessing you have some questions for me?"

Yuuki gave her a small smirk. "Funny. I thought I would have to be the one to hunt you down and demand those answers. Not the other way around."

"Well, I thought I'd spare myself the effort of escaping from you whenever you saw me. So..." She drew out the 'o'. "Shoot."

The auburn haired girl already knew what her first question was going to be.

"Who were those boys?"

"Yamamoto Takeshi, Gokudera Hayato and Sawada Tsunayoshi." Tsubame made no effort to hide the bitter tone in her voice stating the third name.

"Let me rephrase that: what is... _was _my relationship to them?"

Tsubame didn't say anything but then finally sighed. "Well, all three of them were your classmates. Both in the first and second year of middle school."

Yuuki did recall that she had moved to America around what was supposed to be her third year in junior high.

"Somehow, if they were merely 'classmates', the whole awkward situation yesterday wouldn't have happened." She said sarcastically.

Tsubame blinked.

"I didn't think you were actually capable if sarcasm." A pause. "By the way, you're pretty sharp. Not that anyone could say you were oblivious like Kyoko. Geez, her obliviousness is off the chart."

"That's another thing. What was my personality like back then?"

"Hmm... that's a pretty easy one. You were kind, nice, understanding. But you also kept to yourself around most people; you were pretty shy and terse towards those you didn't really know."

Was there something wrong with Yuuki if she thought that her past self was, well, _uninteresting_? Not that there was anything wrong with being kind, nice and understanding, but... it didn't seem like the kind of personality that made an impact on people. Was she a wallflower or something?

"Okay... who is Kyoko? You've mentioned her twice."

"A goody two shoes. I'd describe her as a saint, but you already have that title. Let's see..." Tsubame stared off at the distance. "She has a sweet, bubbly personality... basically a more extroverted version of your past self and as I've said before, she is ridiculously oblivious to the point that she would have died a long time ago if it weren't for her older brother. She was the school idol in middle school and as my sister tells me, still maintains that title in high school."

"You don't like her, do you? I can tell with the way you talk about her, but she sounds like a nice person."

"Being nice doesn't equal instant like."

That was true. But most nice people were well liked.

"So how come you don't like her?"

"I thought this was about you, not Sasagawa Kyoko."

Yuuki could tell she was trying to change the subject but she didn't pursue the topic any further in fear that her Q&A session would be cut short. Though she did feel kind of weird whenever the name 'Kyoko' was mentioned. Why was that?

It was probably her imagination.

"Alright... you still haven't told me about those three boys." Yuuki asked again.

"I was kinda hoping you'd forget about them."

"Too bad. Answer the question."

"Well, Yamamoto and Gokudera were your friends through... Sawada. You pretty much hung around them because Sawada did."

"So I knew the dark haired boy and the silver haired boy through acquaintance." Yuuki frowned. "Than how well do I know... Sawada?"

"He was your childhood friend. Stay away from him."

Yuuki stared incredulously at Tsubame.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi is my childhood friend and what you're telling me to do is to stay away from him?"

"_Was. _Past tense and not because of your memory loss either. He made it pretty clear years ago that he didn't want to be your friend any more."

_Ba-dump. _

Yuuki's heart skipped a beat at those words.

She remembered Kenshin describing someone from their old home town being a 'bastard'. The same aforementioned bastard had also, if her brother's angry words were correct, been the one who put her in a state of depression for as long as she had been in America. Possibly even longer since she recalled him saying that she was a 'basket case' before they moved from Japan.

So it was because of _Tsuna _she probably had amnesia?

No. She shouldn't jump to conclusions. She didn't know that for sure.

"Can I ask why our friendship ended?"

Both her heart and mind were racing and Yuuki wondered if she was prepared to hear the answer.

Much to her disappointment (or was it relief?) Tsubame shook her head. "Sorry, Suzume told me not to tell you that until I was certain you were ready to hear the answer."

* * *

><p><strong>Much drama in this chapter, was there not? Anyways, don't forget to read the author notes above or review either!<strong>

**Also, why the guys had to have the fact that Yuuki is amnesiac explained to them is because even if she treated them like strangers when her past salf knew them well, they aren't going to instantly come to the conclusion that she is suffering from memory loss.  
><strong>


	7. Chapter Six

**I was planning on typing up this fic alongside with Chapter Twenty of The Guardian Angel but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to write both chapters at the same time. Which is why now that I have finally finished that long, cumbersome chapter that would just not end I can get started on this one which will probably be half as long or more.**

**Anyways, hope you enjoy this!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or anything related to it. I do, however, own Yuuki, Tsubame and Suzume.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Six<strong>

This was the first time she had ever been in the music room.

Yuuki's fingers lightly brushed the keys of the piano but never actually pressed down on them. Ever since Tsubame had talked to her on the roof top, her curiosity about how she used to play the piano wouldn't stop bugging her until she finally got the courage to head to the music room and start playing the instrument that had been plaguing her mind for days.

So today she made up her mind to play the piano.

But after she sat down with her fingers lightly hovering over the keys, Yuuki realized that she had no idea what she was going to play. She didn't bring any sheets with her and even if she did used to play it, she certainly didn't know now.

_'Or do I?' _Yuuki thought as she finally pressed down on a key. The piano sang a clear note that the auburn haired girl found soothing.

She pressed a key and the same calm feeling washed over her. And then another and another until she was sure that she was finally playing a song just like when she was experimenting with her violin.

Even though her fingers burned and her heart was beating a mile per minute, she continued to play. Yuuki didn't want to stop playing and like every tune she played, it was sad mixed in with bitter sweet.

It was a song about three people; a boy and two girls. A sort of love triangle. The boy loved the two girls; one of them being his former lover but no longer within his reach while the other he had grown feelings for as he gradually spent time with her, having at first resented her because of the resemblance between her and his former lover.

The boy was conflicted between his past and present and within the conflict of his feelings, he inadvertently hurt the second girl.

When Yuuki finished playing she leaned back and sighed, satisfied with the result.

Shouting from the hallway made her look towards the door, wondering what was going on.

_"Haru! Don't just barge into the class-!"_ The door slid open to reveal a chocolate haired brunette who bounded into room and looked around curiously.

"Hahi?" The girl said. "Who was playing that beautiful music?"

The brunette who Yuuki presumed was Haru scanned the room until her eyes landed on _her._ She should have been offended but Yuuki couldn't help but find the girl's reaction to her somewhat amusing as well as perplexing.

The other girl's brown eyes widened in surprise and maybe... pain? No, not pain. Or rather, pain mixed in with something else but it was hard to tell what it was exactly. Before Yuuki could ask the girl what she wanted in the first place, the latter turned her back towards her and quickly exited the room slamming the door shut behind her.

_"Hey Haru! What was that all about?" _The same voice that had scolded girl before she barged in unannounced was shouting.

Yuuki could hear footsteps moving away from the room. They got fainter and fainter until finally she could no longer hear them.

_'What _was _that about?' _Yuuki thought before turning her attention back to the piano. She continued playing the piano before the bell went off and she had to return to her classroom.

0000

"What's this?" Yuuki asked, taking the envelope from Shindou.

The green haired man gave her a strange look before deciding to answer the question for her. "It's your salary for the month."

Salary?_ Oh, right! _You usually got paid at the end of month for working. How could Yuuki forget that?

But considering all the things that happened in the past few weeks, it probably couldn't be helped. Having someone who was your friend before you lost your memories come up to you and introduce herself, meeting up with people who you used to know but couldn't remember and then having that same friend knowing a lot more about your life than you did and telling you about what you wanted to know...

Would it be accurate for Yuuki to say that she had so much on her mind that she didn't have room to think about anything else?

"Oh, thanks!" Yuuki said quickly, her cheeks turning pink as she quickly placed the envelope into her bag.

She bowed to her boss in a respected manner just as Japanese culture adhered her to before turning on her heel to escape the awkward atmosphere.

Yuuki couldn't help sighing once she was outside. She just created awkward atmospheres everywhere she went, didn't she?

She felt drained, not just from working again but also because once again she was reminded of the mysteries she needed to figure out to try and determine who she was.

So far Yuuki discovered that:

She plays the violin and piano and possibly even more instruments.

Her two best friends were Suzume and Tsubame. And they were _ninjas. _

She also used to have a childhood friend named Tsunayoshi 'Tsuna' Sawada who was no longer her friend according to Tsubame.

She used to be a kind, caring compassionate person who was shy to all but her friends (Yuuki _still _had a hard time believing that she _had _been that kind of person).

And that was only the tip of the ice berg.

Yuuki knew there was so much more to her story than that, but where would she start? She still needed to look even more into the facts that she already knew and she didn't even know how to accomplish that much.

Not really thinking about what she was doing, Yuuki slammed her fist into the wall next to her out of frustration. She ignored the pain that shot up into her arm from the force and didn't care that the skin from her knuckles had become a bit raw or that they were bleeding.

_Why _was everything so frustrating? She just wanted to get her memories back or at least try and discover who she was. But ever since she came to Namimori, Yuuki found herself running around in endless circles.

"Yuuki-chan?"

The girl in question blinked as she was brought back to the world of reality. She found herself looking down onto to the asphalt sidewalk with her arm extended above her punching the wall. She became aware of the stinging pain in her hand as she slowly pulled it away from the rough surface of the wall and exposed it to fresh air.

Hissing, she cradled her self-inflicted injury. She was vaguely aware of the first time she had punched the wall but as she examined her hand, she saw that she had probably hit her fist against it more than once.

"Yuuki-chan?" The same voice that snapped her out of her thoughts asked again.

Slowly Yuuki turned to face the owner of the voice and saw the worried face of her co-worker Uru Takamura peering at her in concern.

"Uru?" She blinked. Why was she here? Didn't they live in opposite directions?

"This isn't the way to your house, is it?" She asked. "I've seen you walk in the other direction."

Ugh, so it was her who went the wrong way.

Great.

Yuuki sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. Why was all of this bothering her right now? Did it have to do with that girl during lunch who ran off just as soon as she had seen her face? She had probably known the other girl in the past, but judging by the brunette's reaction to her they probably hadn't been very good friends.

"Well then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at work again." Yuuki finally said as she turned in the _right _direction to her apartment.

But instead of just waving good bye and continuing to where she lived, Uru caught up with her in a few seconds and was soon walking beside the older girl. Yuuki would have pointed out that now _Uru _was going the wrong way but she didn't feel like addressing a fact they both knew.

"Yuuki-chan...?" Uru's voice was quiet and hesitant.

She looked flustered as she directed her gaze at Yuuki then looked away again with her face slightly pink.

"I was wondering and so was Ichirou-kun..." She continued. "...why is that you never talk about yourself? You're always so quiet and even though Shindou says that you're the hardest worker out of all of us, you seem pretty lonely."

Yuuki wanted to say that it was none of Uru's business but kept her mouth shut. She was only concerned about Yuuki's lack of social interaction with others outside of Tsubame.

Actually... Tsubame was the only person she had talked to in Namimori not counting the fact she had to ask several students in her class what she had to do. Thanks to her incomplete knowledge of how the system in Japan worked, many of her classmates thought she was a Nisei: a full-blooded japanese person who was _not _born in Japan.

She might as well have been considering that she only knew how things in America worked.

Finally she shrugged, looking Uru straight in the eye. "There never really was anything to talk about."

Other than that she didn't have _much _to talk about.

"Oh..." Uru sounded so downhearted that Yuuki felt the sudden urge to kick herself.

They didn't say anything after that, but Uru continued to walk with her. Just as they turned the corner she realized too late that someone else was about to turn as well. So for the second time in a month, Yuuki found herself walk right into someone and falling backwards right on to her butt.

"Ow..." She grumbled, clenching her eyes and rubbing her now numb rear end.

"You!"

_'Oh for the love of...' _Even though she hadn't heard that voice in a while, she was still able to recognize it. _'I am so not in the mood to be dealing with this...' _

Grabbing onto Uru's extended arm, she allowed the smaller girl to haul her up. She was a bit surprised about how easily Uru could get her back onto her feet, but she remembered when the girl pulled Ichirou up when he had fallen asleep on her on her first day of work. There was also the numerous dishes Uru broke when she helped with clearing up the store.

Shindou didn't find that part as funny as Yuuki did, complaining about the bills the broken dishes wracked up.

"Hello to you too..." Yuuki paused as she tried to recall his name. "...Gokudera Hayato?"

The silver haired boy scowled. "Yeah, that's me."

She then turned to the taller, darker skinned boy. "Yamamoto Takeshi then, right?"

Gokudera's tall companion grinned and nodded at her getting his name right.

"Why did you come back?" The animosity in Gokudera's voice had her turning towards him in both surprise and curiosity. From Tsubame's stories, Gokudera was a short tempered guy who had a penchant of throwing dynamite at everyone except for Tsuna who he literally worshiped the ground he walked on. But at the moment, Yuuki got the feeling that he didn't like her in particular for some reason.

"The Tenth already has enough problems to deal with and then _you _come along to make things even worse!" He was down right snarling_. _

"Oi, Gokudera..." Yamamoto was no longer grinning awkwardly as he frowned at his friend's words.

Hazel eyes flashed as Yuuki's mouth opened to give her former acquaintance a good tongue lashing. She couldn't help the fact that she had come to Namimori any more than the fact that her appearance caused this 'Tenth' problems.

"Wait... Tenth?" Yuuki's said as she remembered the first time she had bumped into them albeit with one more person. "Is Tenth referring to Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

When she had fell onto the boy she could recall him being addressed Tenth at the same time someone called him the shortened version of his name.

"Yeah." Yamamoto said. He sounded melancholy. "He's... that's another title for him, I guess you can say."

Her former friend had multiple titles?

"He's your childhood friend!" Gokudera sounded outraged. "How can you address him so casually?"

That was _it_. "Last time I checked, we were no longer friends!" Yuuki snapped. "And he apparently made it pretty clear too so why do I have to act as if we were even friends!"

"Are you stupid?" Gokudera and Yuuki were now right in each other's faces. "He had a good reason for it!"

"So there are good reasons for being a complete ass to break up a friendship are there?"

"What the hell do you know? You can't remember a fucking thing!"

"Yeah, well even from an outsider's view breaking friendships by being an asshole seems callous to me!"

Gokudera looked as if was about to whip out his dynamite and throw them at her when suddenly the back of his head met the pavement.

"Stop yelling at Yuuki-chan!" Uru glared, her arms still extended even after she had pushed him.

Both Yamamoto and Yuuki could only stare in impressed shock at the fact that a small girl who barely came up to his chest had managed to send the silver haired boy flying with one simple shove.

"Er..." Yamamoto said slowly as he broke the silence. "...are you hungry? My dad owns a sushi place. It'll be my treat."

Yuuki got the meaning behind his words.

_We need to talk._

0000

"Mmm! This is so good!" Uru said as she devoured piece after piece of sushi that Yamamoto's father made.

As Yuuki watched her co-worker go at it, she frantically hoped that she had enough money to pay for it all. There was no way that she was going to let the boy put this on the house. If they didn't have enough money, hopefully they let people have tabs.

If not, this was going to be a pretty long night.

"Glad you think so! Though should a little girl your age be eating so much?"

Yuuki had been drinking a glass of coke when the man had said that. She choked on her drink, but quickly thumped her hand against her chest to clear her airway again.

"She's older than she looks." She told the three males since Uru was too busy despairing over the fact that yet _another _person had mistook her for being an elementary age student.

"Oh?" Yamamoto's father blinked. "How old is she?"

"Sixteen." Yuuki said at the same time Uru replied, "Second year high school."

There was complete silence as the other three digested information while looking at Uru incredulously. Yamamoto and his father had the decency to try and not look too surprised while Gokudera just outright gaped at her.

"What." Gokudera finally said, his eyes crinkling as he glared at Uru. "_You're _a year younger than me?"

He was still a little bitter over the fact that Uru had knocked him down earlier.

"I told you that she was older than she looked." Yuuki shrugged.

Not much was said between any of them after that with the exception of Uru cheerfully talking with Yamamoto's father.

Even though Gokudera was against it, Yuuki was firm that Uru stay with her. What she didn't say out loud to them was that she felt uncomfortable being alone in their presence for some silent, nagging reason hence why she brought Uru with her.

When they were finished, Yamamoto said that they should head up to his room so that no one would be able to over hear their conversation.

"So how much do you know?" The dark haired boy had disappeared into his kitchen earlier to grab some drinks. He gave Uru and Yuuki a drink each that they accepted gratefully while Gokudera refused his.

"Why did you even bring her in the first place then?" Gokudera grumbled, jerking his head in Uru's direction.

"Because she's my friend and I didn't feel like being alone with you two."

They heard a gasp and all three looked over at the second year high school student who looked like she was still in elementary school. Her face was pink as she stared at Yuuki with a look akin to idol worship. Seconds later, Uru was still staring at her and Yuuki was beginning to feel really uncomfortable.

"Urm..." Yamamoto rubbed the back of his head, looking nervous. "Well the reason we're here is because we-"

"Who is this 'we' you are talking about?" Gokudera glared at him.

"-'We'," Yamamoto continued as if he hadn't heard his friend, "wanted to talk to you."

_'I figured out that much,' _Yuuki thought but didn't say out loud.

Instead, she said, "What is it?"

The boy crookedly smiled at her. "It's about, um, Tsuna."

"Your third friend?" Yuuki raised an eyebrow at him, her expression nonchalant. Inwardly though, she wanted to know more about the boy whose face would not leave her mind. It had been annoying her for a while but whenever she tried to ask Tsubame about it she would always clamp up and Yuuki was reluctant to go to the school Suzume attended to ask _her _about it.

"...yes." Yamamoto sighed. "That's him. That's Tsuna."

"Alright then." Yuuki set down her drink and looked the boy straight in the eye. "What about him?"

Gokudera growled but Yamamoto shot him a stern look before answering Yuuki's question.

"Well I'm sure you've already heard this from Tsubame but you know Tsuna is your childhood friend, right?"

"Yes."

"Has... Tsubame said anything about him?" Translation: was Tsubame being biased whenever she described him to her? The correct answer would be yes, but Yuuki didn't want to set off the silver haired boy's temper by saying that. Instead, she decided to go with the most neutral answer she had.

"Only that our friendship ended on a sour note."

"I see." Yamamoto said. "Er... do you hold that against Tsuna?"

Yuuki shook her head. "I don't. Or rather, my current self doesn't."

Silence settled in as Yamamoto tried to figure out what to say next. Gokudera was trying to burn a hole in the wall with his glare alone while Uru looked somewhat confused and intrigued by the conversation.

Finally, Yamamoto sighed. "I know it sounds selfish to ask this but... can you forgive Tsuna? He didn't mean to hurt you the way he did and he's missed you. He acts like his old self most of the time but there are times that he seems so sad."

"No."

Yuuki's voice was devoid of emotion but it wasn't cold when she replied.

Gokudera whirled his head in her direction, the furious look in his gaze startling Yuuki so much that she instinctively scooted back to put more distant between them.

"How can you say that? Do you know how much the Tenth has suffered because of you?"

"Well I'm sorry about that, but there isn't anything I can do about it." Annoyance crept into Yuuki's voice. "Besides, _I'm _not the one who should be forgiving him."

She was suddenly jerked forward when Gokudera reached over table and grabbed the collar of her shirt. She found herself staring at fury filled green eyes and while she was intimidated by how close their faces were and how much anger there was in his eyes, Yuuki didn't show any signs of being afraid.

"Then _who_?"

"My past-self. The one who remembers it all." The grip on her loosened. "I maybe 'Yuuki' in name and appearance, but I'm not really her. At least the one you all know."

That was the sad truth. Her present self was the stranger, a second persona filling in for the original Yuuki who was buried deep within the recesses of her mind.

Hazel eyes met green. "_I _could forgive him if he were to come up to me and apologize, but it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't really be his friend doing the forgiving, but a stranger who just looks like the person he knows."

Yuuki must have gotten pretty used to the silences that followed her wherever she went since she hardly noticed the one that ensued after she had said that.

After what felt like an eternity, Gokudera finally released her.

"Do you know why the Tenth ended your friendship?"

Yuuki shook her head, giving him a dry look that suggested she didn't.

Yamamoto suddenly found his empty glass interesting while the silver haired boy rubbed his head tiredly, suddenly looking exhausted and ten years older.

"It's because you nearly died."

0000

_All Tsuna could remember were the gun shots ringing through out the air and then smelling the strong metallic scent of blood. But the pain that was supposed to be there didn't come. Instead, he heard a heavy thud that sent his heart racing and had his hyper intuition going haywire. Turning around he saw something that made his heart stop beating and his blood freeze. _

_Lying by his feet was someone who looked an awful lot like Yuuki with a pool of blood forming around her that soaked the ground and her clothes in dark crimson red._

_"Tenth!" He heard Gokudera yell in the distance, soon followed by an explosion and someone's scream of terror._

_The boy didn't hear him as he dropped on to his knees and turned the person over, hoping that it wasn't really his childhood friend lying on the ground. His trembling hand moved towards her, gently shifting her body towards him. _

_It couldn't be Yuuki, it couldn't be... _

_But it was.  
><em>

_"Dame Tsuna, she's still alive." It was Reborn and he was examining the person as well. "But barely. If you don't act now, she'll die."_

_His mind was sent reeling and the next thing he knew, he was carrying the girl in his arms and racing towards the hospital using his Hyper Dying Will flames to beat the clock._

_Otherwise Yuuki was going to die._

Tsuna flung his blankets off of him as he sat up completely covered in cold sweat. His heart beat erratically within his chest as he tried to regain his breath. When his heart rate and breathing returned to normal, Tsuna leaned against the wall and looked around to make sure that he was definitely in his room and that it had all been a dream.

But it hadn't been just a dream.

It was a memory. It was his _worst _memory ever since he became involved with the mafia.

It was the day that Yuuki had nearly lost her life and when he realized just how much she had meant to him as more than a friend.

And it was the prelude to the end of their friendship.

* * *

><p><strong>It took me forever to get this chapter out so you better appreciate it. Hopefully, this was more exciting than the last chapter not to mention that it revealed the reason as to why Tsuna decided to break off being friends with Yuuki.<strong>

**And yes, to all you Happy Cafe fans Uru makes an important appearance. I hope I got her in character, though...  
><strong>

**The song that Yuuki played at the beginning is 'To love's end' from the Inu Yasha soundtrack.  
><strong>

**Anyways, until then, I guess I'll see you!**_  
><em>


	8. Chapter Seven

**Now that I've updated the twenty first chapter of The Guardian Angel, I can now officially work on the seventh chapter of this. Also, I have regained that inspiration I need, so yeah... though this might take me a while. **

**Also, I thought I'd let you guys know... **

**THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS! **

**Ever since I updated last month, I have gotten a ton of reviews from you guys. And for that, I am thankful. So thanks guys.  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. I do, however, own Yuuki, Tsubame and Suzume. **

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><p><strong>Chapter Seven<strong>

"If you are just going to stand there outside all day you might as well come in."

A startled Yuuki looked up from the piece of paper that she was reading to see a woman standing several feet away in front of the house entrance staring back at her. The first thought that came to the girl's mind was that the person was very beautiful.

The lady, who had yet to be identified, had long magenta coloured hair that was just as pretty as the rest of her. Her skin was paler than the average japanese person and she had green eyes that for some reason reminded her of Gokudera's.

"Um..." Yuuki wasn't quite sure what to say. "I'm sorry, but is this the Sawada residence?"

It was Saturday and since it was only a half-day at school today, Yuuki had decided to fulfill the promise she made to Yamamoto and Gokudera when she had gone over to the former's house with Uru several days ago. The baseball player had asked if she would go over to Tsuna's house and talk to him. Much to everyone's surprise, the temperamental silver haired boy seconded his friend/rival's (?) suggestion.

When he saw the incredulous and disbelieving stares sent towards him, Gokudera's face flushed and he spluttered that he was only doing this for the Tenth and not Yuuki.

_That, _Yuuki could understand. Gokudera had made it clear to her by this point that he was undyingly loyal to his boss to the point of obsession. And not a healthy obsession either.

"Yes." The woman nodded curtly. "What business do you have here?"

She may have been beautiful, but she was also intimidating.

"I..." Great, the courage she gathered was beginning to leave her. She had to say what she wanted to say fast before it was completely gone. "IwanttotalktoTsunayoshiSawada!"

There. She said it.

"What?" The woman raised an eyebrow.

Yuuki rewound the last few seconds in her mind and realized that she had spoken far too fast for anyone to understand her.

"Er... I have business with Tsunayoshi Sawada. I want to talk to him about something." She said more slowly.

The mysterious lady scrutinized her for what felt like forever (which was actually a few minutes) before her expression softened. "I didn't think I would ever see you here again." She gestured for Yuuki to follow into the house. "Come."

0000

Apparently Tsuna was out shopping with his mom and the younger kids that lived with them. He wouldn't be back home for a couple of hours, but the lady who had spotted her standing outside staring at the name plate invited Yuuki in anyways so that she wouldn't miss the boy when he came back. The woman offered to make her something to eat while they waited.

Yuuki stared at the purple... whatever it was that the woman had placed down in front of her. It had both the colour and consistency of toxic sludge and the girl was certain that if she took one bite of the stuff she'd probably be in the afterlife within seconds.

"No thanks." Yuuki pushed the dish away from her. "I'm not hungry. I already ate before I came here."

Actually she just had toast, eggs and tea for breakfast and it was already past lunch, but there was no way that she was going to eat that _sludge _no matter how nice the person had been to offer her a free meal. She was not suicidal, and she had no such plans of dying in the near time future thank you very much.

"Ah," She said, to take her mind off the food (that was radiating toxic smoke none the less!) that she was desperate not to think about. "You... haven't introduced yourself to me yet."

"Bianchi." The no longer nameless woman answered as she leaned backwards against the kitchen counter, her arms folded across her chest as she gazed at Yuuki with critical eyes. "So it's true. You really have forgotten everything."

"Who told you that?" Yuuki asked. She shouldn't really be surprised about the fact that people were talking about her 'problem' already. She just hoped that it didn't spread out to everyone who lived in Namimori.

"Reborn, of course." Bianchi used her hand to flick some of her hair off her shoulder and place the strands behind her. The action made her look like a model, not that it made that much of a difference since she could easily be a model if she wanted to.

Yuuki couldn't help but envy her a little. She had to put effort into her own appearance to look presentable while this woman looked as if she didn't have to do much at all.

"The baby, right?" It was impossible not to forget the fedora baby after you met him.

"That's him." Bianchi cooed. "Isn't he the most adorable person you've ever met?"

No, he wasn't. He looked like an angelic baby of hell. But Yuuki wasn't going to say that out loud, especially in front of this woman who obviously found the baby the most endearing thing on the planet. She had a feeling that saying otherwise would just be plain hazardous to her health.

So she just nodded and looked as if she agreed with Bianchi.

"So you're here in hopes that you'll remember something?"

Yuuki stared at her. How in the world would someone she just met for the first time know something like _that_?

Bianchi chuckled at the wary expression on the auburn haired girl's face. "I think it is natural for all those who can't remember what they were like or what they've experienced to try and rediscover who they were again." She then sobered up. "Besides, I don't think you would have come back to Japan otherwise. Not since that day."

There it was again. She kept hearing that phrase everywhere she went. 'Since that day' or anything else similar to it.

According to nearly everyone she had spoken to, it had only taken one day for Yuuki's world as she knew it back then to change. That one day had been the beginning of everything. Friendships and relationships changing, Yuuki moving to America and descending into a slow depression and then finally coming back to the hometown she had grown up in for most of her life and causing reactions within certain people whenever they saw her face again after many years.

She shrugged. "That's probably why I'm here in the first place. Because I can't remember any of it."

Bianchi sighed. "Your current self may want to remember her past, but does your past self want to remember?"

Huh? Yuuki raised a questioning eyebrow at her. As surprising as it was to hear this, it wasn't the first someone had pointed it out. She still remembered the doctor her parents took her to when they were concerned about her buried memories.

Yuuki had been hurt emotionally. So the fact that she was subconsciously blocking her own memories didn't surprise her.

Still, she decided that she would try and remember. Remember so that she would stop feeling the emptiness her current self felt everyday.

"I don't think... I can keep running away forever." Yuuki said sadly with a small smile on her face. "I have to wake up from this dream at some point." What Yuuki meant by that was that she was going to have to face reality again once when she regained her memories. She could only put it off for so long and choosing to remain amnesiac for the rest of her life just to avoid the emotional pain would only be selfish to those around her.

She sighed. "The dream must eventually end."

Yuuki had to stop running away at some point.

Bianchi opened her mouth, about to say something, when they heard the front door opening. "Bianchi! We're home!"

The voice belonged to an older woman. Yuuki guessed that the second woman was Mrs. Sawada, Tsuna's mother.

"I bought plenty of ingredients to make for tonight's dinner-" A woman with shoulder length dark chocolate hair walked into the kitchen, holding up a bag of groceries as she announced her purchases. She stopped short when she saw Yuuki staring at her.

There was a long silence (Yuuki was beginning to think that silence along with awkward was just following her around for the pure sake of annoying her) when the brunette woman let out a squeal, sped towards the girl sitting at the table and threw her arms around her in a tight embracing hug.

"Yuuki-chan! Is that you? It's been so long that I hardly recognize you any more! You've grown into a beautiful, young lady!"

The girl in question let out a gasp as her air supply was effectively cut off from the bear like hug and she struggled to get out of the woman's grip.

"Tsu-kun! Look who it is!" The cheerful woman twisted her body around and let go of her so that Yuuki could see the boy standing in the door way and he could see her.

His expression was blank and unreadable. It was refreshing from the hurt and pained ones she had seen over the course of their last meetings but at the same time it was unnerving. Did the sight of Yuuki's face really bother him that much even though he had been the one to push her away from him?

"It's Yuuki-chan!" The bright cheery smile began to slide off his mother's face. "Tsu-kun?"

"Hi... Yuuki." Tsuna forced himself to smile and that smile wouldn't fool anyone, much less his own mother or anyone else who knew him for that matter.

"Hi S-" She corrected herself quickly. "Tsunayoshi-kun!"

By the stares and the quietness in the kitchen, that hadn't been right thing to say.

As Yuuki quickly tried to think of a way to get out of another situation she had landed herself in, three kids ran into the kitchen.

"Yuuki-nee!" The oldest kid who was a boy with light coloured hair and wearing a scarf threw himself at her. He was quickly followed by a boy in a black and white patterned shirt and a girl wearing red chinese clothes.

"Yuuki!" The cow patterned boy yelled.

"Yuuki-chan!" The girl shouted.

"AHHH!" Yuuki flailed in her chair for a moment before the four of them toppled over in the chair and onto the floor.

"Yuuki-nee, is it really you?" The boy with the scarf was looking at her with bright eyes.

"Um, ow." The aforementioned raised herself by her elbows and winced as she looked at the kids and answered the boy with the scarf's question. "Yes?"

The girl once again was being suffocated via hugging but this time there were three of them.

First thing that came to mind was to gently shove them off her just so that she could breathe again, but for some reason her body wouldn't comply with her thoughts. And it wasn't because her arms were being pinned to her sides that she couldn't. Whenever she tried, her hands would freeze mid action and she was back to being pinned to the wooden floor again.

"Um..." She looked up at the amused adults and baby watching the scene. "Help?"

0000

Fifteen minutes later, Yuuki was beginning to miss being tackled to the ground by those rambunctious kids. It had taken the others four tries to pull them off of her since whenever one of then was pulled away, another would take the chance to knock her down again.

Unsurprisingly, when she was able to stand up again, Tsuna wasn't standing in the door way again. He had made it clear to her before that he found being in her presence uncomfortable to the point that it was painful, but Yuuki couldn't help but be a little disappointed that he hadn't stuck around.

"Yuuki-chan," The girl looked at her childhood friend's mother who had spoken. "Why don't you stay for dinner?"

"Oh no!" Yuuki said quickly, holding up her hands in front of her. "I wouldn't want to impose on you!"

"Nonsense!" The woman, who Bianchi quietly said she should refer to as Nana, said it in such a way that Yuuki knew she was going to be staying for dinner whether she liked it or not. Which was probably why she was helping out chopping vegetables and occasionally stirring the stew. "You're always welcome here, you know that! And Tsu-kun has missed you."

The last part had Yuuki looking a bit incredulous.

"I didn't think he would."

It _was _his fault for her past self's internal emotional conflict.

"No, no." Nana's expression softened. "I know he did. He tries to hide it from me, but I can tell."

"Mmm." Yuuki was distracted by the smell of the stew that was making the acid in her stomach claw at the walls. She was beginning to get hungry...

"...what about you?"

"Eh?" She had been focusing on something else, so she hadn't heard the first part of what Nana had said.

"You weren't acting like yourself. Is something wrong?"

"You could tell?" Yuuki asked softly.

"I maybe Tsuna's mother, but I have looked after you as well since you were small. You're like my second child and my daughter."

"Hah..." Yuuki's thoughts flashed back to her own mother's sweet and sad expression. "Mothers really do know everything, don't they?"

Nana smiled. "Of course we do. We know our children better than anyone else."

"...oh."

"So what's wrong?"

Yuuki couldn't help but smile. Nana was very insistent, but at the same time there was something about her that made you unable to say no to her face. And if you could say no, then you would feel bad immediately.

And so Yuuki told her. Told Nana that she couldn't remember anything; that she knew nothing of her own past and was desperately trying to rediscover it. That was the very reason why she was in Namimori and why those she had formerly been associated with were no longer familiar to her.

The girl expected Nana to be silent or to stare at her in shock, unable to find anything to say to her.

Instead she felt something wrap around her waist and pull her into hug.

"...I see." Nana said softly. "That must be painful for you."

Yuuki smiled wryly, a little uncomfortable in her embrace. "I can't exactly miss what I can't remember."

Nana let her go and shook her head. "No. But it must be painful for you to not know either. I can see it in your eyes."

0000

The dinner was absolutely delicious.

Yuuki found herself devouring everything on her plate and she had to check herself several times so that the others wouldn't think she had absolute zero manners. She found herself in a good mood as she helped Nana clean and put away the dishes despite the woman's insistence that she was a guest. But the girl helped out anyways as a way to say thanks for the delicious meal.

"Yuuki-chan, it's eight o'clock." Nana said as she glanced at the clock. "Isn't who ever is looking after you going to get worried?"

The girl shook her head. "I live by myself, so it doesn't really matter."

Nana looked surprised for a moment before breaking out into a huge smile. "Then you should sleep over here for the night!"

Yuuki had been scrubbing a dirty plate with the rag towel that had been provided. When she heard Nana's declaration of staying over, she dropped the plate. Thankfully, she dropped it in the sink that was full of water so it didn't break.

"What?" She said in alarm.

"You should stay over! You used to do that a lot when you and Tsuna were younger!"

Despite all her desperate efforts, she was unable to deter Nana from her idea of Yuuki sleeping over. She was going to stay at the Sawada residence and that was that.

An hour later, Yuuki was in the room she had apparently always slept in when she had been over at Tsuna's. Nana gave her a pair of pajamas that fit her.

She exited the room to go thank the woman when she was unintentionally side tracked.

In the form of crashing into someone.

Flailing, she instinctively reached out and grabbed the person. But instead of using them to balance herself so that she wouldn't fall over, she pulled them down with her in accordance to the physics discovered by Newton. Yuuki heard the other person give a shout of alarm, but didn't think much of it as her back took the impact for her fall. Again.

Why did she keep crashing into people and falling over? Was this going to follow her around wherever she went as well?

"Ow..." She groaned.

She slowly opened her eyes and froze, instantly wishing that she had kept them shut.

Leaning over her was her childhood friend. And he wasn't wearing a shirt. He was wearing a pair of pajama bottoms, but for some reason he wasn't wearing a shirt. A quick examination told her that he was quite active when it came to physical exercise or training of some sort since he had a well toned stomach and slender, muscular arms.

Yuuki's face turned red and she could feel her face burning. She snapped her gaze back up to focus on his face and found herself staring up at a pair of caramel coloured eyes.

The girl's breath hitched in her throat as she stared up at Tsuna's eyes and he stared down into her own. She felt her heart speed up and at the pace it was going, she wouldn't be surprised if her heart decided to break out of her rib cage.

Great, Yuuki thought as she continued to stare into the depths of her childhood friend's eyes, what was she supposed to do now?

* * *

><p><strong>Finally, I'm done! <strong>

**Just so you know, the fan service at the end for TsunaxOC fans wasn't intentional. Seriously, I wasn't planning this kind of ending when I typed up this chapter but somehow it just ended up like this. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it either way. **

**And just so you know, yes, I do watch XxxHolic.  
><strong>

**Don't forget to review and I'll see you guys next time!**


	9. Chapter Eight

**Wow, seems like a lot of you really liked the ending of the chapter. And now I feel inspired to write the rest of what happens next thanks to your positive reviews! And yeah, trust me, reviews can make all the difference in the world. **

**Just so you know, the word count of Fragments of Lost Memories will range from a variety of numbers, but none of them will be below a thousand since I can't really type out that little unless it's a one-shot or something.**

**Also, this is for WinterGuardianAngel24. I'm doing this because I want to, so it isn't inconvenient for me, don't worry! Anyways... to the reviewers who also happen to be fans of my other KHR fic, The Guardian Angel, please go and read Winter's own version of her characters having to perform a heavenly trial! It gets better later on, so if you have the time go read it and review!  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. I do, however, own Yuuki. Who is finally going to be able to bridge the broken friendship beween her and Tsuna. **

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eight<strong>

What the _hell_?

Those were the words that were running across Tsuna's mind when his face turned as bright red as a tomato. Underneath him, Yuuki looked just as bewildered as he did. Her own cheeks were flushed red and were turning darker with each passing second while her eyes widened in surprise.

Tsuna had just finished taking a shower, but as he put on his pajamas he realized that he had forgotten the shirt. He was just heading to his room to get it when Yuuki crashed into him in the hall. Instinctively, she latched on to him for support. But because he wasn't exactly prepared to see the girl in the hall way or predict that she was going to grab him, he went down with her. Thinking fast, Tsuna was able to throw his arms out in time to prevent himself from falling on top of her entirely.

But now...

They were in a very questionable situation.

"Do you tend to walk around shirtless when you're at home?"

Yuuki's eyes were half-lidded and her voice was deadpan when she said that. But Tsuna noticed that she was keeping her eyes focused on his face and glaring at him, not out of anger but of embarassment.

"Ah... no." Tsuna blinked. Was Yuuki always this blunt?

He had already heard from Suzume that because of her memory loss of everything, including her personality, Yuuki was like a different person. But even so, there were some aspects of her that were still recognizeable. She was still quiet, but it wasn't because she was shy but rather because she was unsure about things. In fact, her current self even said words that she would have balked at before or shrink away from.

Yuuki sighed. "Can you please..." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Uh... move off of me? I'm not sure about you, but I don't want anyone passing by and getting the wrong impression here."

Tsuna's blush returned full force. He immediately pushed himself to the side so that Yuuki could sit up. And like she said, he didn't want anyone to see them in that position either. Especially his _mother. _Who knows what she would do?

"Ow!" Tsuna winced as his hand touched the floor. He looked down at his arm and paled.

On his arm were several angry and ugly red lines cutting from close to his right elbow to his hand. His other arm had the same marks on them, but not as bad as his right one.

Wondering what Tsuna was looking at, Yuuki looked down at his hands and flinched. She looked down at her nails and sighed.

"I _knew _I should have cut my nails yesterday." She muttered.

0000

"Will you stay _still_?" Yuuki snapped at the brunet as he yanked his arm away from her again when she pressed the cloth against the scratches that were beginning to swell.

"But it _hurts_!" He yelped, tears pricking the side of his eyes as he cradled his arm.

When she glared at him, Tsuna reluctantly gave Yuuki back his arm. She gripped it tightly between her fingers as she continued to rub the cloth against his skin, but was more gentle in applying the rubbing alcohol on the flesh wound. Yuuki couldn't blame him for acting like he did earlier since rubbing alcohol on any injury hurt like hell, but that didn't mean he couldn't bear and grin it for the thirty seconds it took for her to get the job done.

Once she saw the scratches and the blood she had drawn with her nails, Yuuki immediately took her childhood friend by the arm and dragged him to the kitchen where Nana was giving the kids an extra dessert after dinner. When the woman saw the scratches and swelling on her son's arm from where Yuuki had grabbed him, Nana gave her the first aid kit and the girl proceeded to dress the injuries properly in the living room.

"Deal with it." Yuuki did not sound sympathetic to his pain.

"At least let me put on my shirt!"

"No."

The reason why she wasn't letting him put on his shirt yet was because it was easier to bandage him like this. The sleeves wouldn't get in the way of work and somehow, she didn't think Tsuna would appreciate the blood stains on his clothes at all.

Hearing no more complaints from him, Yuuki finished the process of disinfecting his arm before wrapping the bandages around it. When she was finished tying it, she dropped his left arm and gestured for him to hold out his right.

When she got to the part with the rubbing alcohol again, Tsuna flinched but otherwise kept his arm in place otherwise. He didn't want to have Yuuki glaring at him again; something he found odd compared to when she still knew him because as far as Tsuna knew, she had never glared at anyone before.

Suzume was right; the Yuuki in front of him was different from the one he used to know.

After a few minutes, Yuuki was finally done and she gave Tsuna back his arm. The boy let out a sigh of relief as the ordeal was finally over. They still stung, but not so much any more.

"There." Yuuki said, a perfectly angelic smile on her face. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

Tsuna shot her an irritated look. "Maybe not for you."

"It wasn't exactly easy getting you to sit still, you know. This could have taken ten minutes; instead, it took half an hour."

"...you're different from her."

Tsuna said this so softly that Yuuki had barely managed to catch that sentence. She raised an eyebrow, having a good idea of what he was talking about but choosing to play dumb instead so she could hear his words herself.

"Pardon?"

"...you're... different."

Tsuna's head was turned side ways, purposely avoiding her gaze.

"...did you honestly just figure that out right now?"

Her voice was flat and void of any emotion. Forcing himself to, Tsuna turned and met her eyes which no longer shone with playful mirth but were more serious and underlined with a nearly undetectable layer of sadness.

"..."

Yuuki rolled her eyes. "What do you expect? I don't remember anything about my former self; the only thing I _did _remember when I woke up at the hospital was my own name. Everything else I had to learn second hand, usually what others tell me. Not to mention that in New York, some of the people there can be very rude. So if you apply the term 'survival of the fittest' to that concept, then you should get an answer there as to how my current personality formed."

The girl stood up and headed to her room. She usually went to bed early. It made no difference what time she would go to bed, even if she was at someone else's house.

"WAIT!"

Tsuna had followed her when she left the living room and had grabbed her wrist to prevent her from walking away from him again.

"What?" Yuuki asked when she turned to face him.

"Suzume... told me you lost your memories six months ago..." Tsuna trailed off as he was contemplating how to continue.

"...and you're probably wondering why I still remain amnesiac?" Yuuki asked. Tsuna remained silent, but she knew she had gotten what he was about to ask next right.

Yuuki shrugged.

"I'm not sure myself." She said. "But the doctor I went to had a theory about it. According to him, my subconscious is blocking my memories because there's something that I don't want to remember."

Tsuna's eyes widened for a moment before they hardened into realization, with hurt replacing the wide-eyed surprise.

"If you must know, apparently my past self never got over you breaking your friendship. Even if you did it for her own good."

She gently slipped her hand out of his grip and went into her room. She took one last look at the pained expression on Tsuna's face before closing the door to her room gently and turning in for the night.

Yuuki didn't know why, but it had hurt to see him giving her that look.

0000

_She had no idea how long she had been sitting there on the cold concrete. It had started raining at some point and she was aware of the fact that she was completely soaked to the bone and would probably suffer a cold tomorrow, but she just couldn't bring herself to care. She was also aware that her still tender wounds were aching, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the one that had forcefully been ripped into her heart.  
><em>

_Late evening soon turned into night, but the girl still remained like a broken marionette on the ground that had its strings cut. Her hazel eyes stared blankly at the pavement as the scene from a few hours kept replaying over and over in her mind._

_Her friendship with Tsuna was over._

0000

When Yuuki opened her eyes, she was momentarily blinded until she turned to the side to avoid the sun's rays shining in her face. Once she could see again, she realized that she wasn't in her bedroom and bolted up in alarm, wondering how she had gotten into the unknown room. It took her a few seconds, but then she remembered that she had slept over at her childhood friend's house at the (forceful) request of his mother.

"That's right." She muttered, stifling a yawn. "I'm at the Sawada residence."

It was funny how she could easily say Nana's name out loud but not her childhood friend's. She was certain that it wasn't intentional on her part... at least conciously.

But subconsciously was an entirely different matter.

A knock outside of the room Nana had let her sleep in had her looking towards the door.

"Yes?" Yuuki said in reply.

The door opened and Bianchi peered in. "Nana told me to tell you that breakfast was ready."

Yuuki blinked, registering what Bianchi said before immediately getting out of the bed and starting to fix its sheets.

"Tell her I'll be down in a few minutes. Just need to get my stuff ready."

Bianchi nodded and closed the door shut behind her. After Yuuki was sure that her bed making was perfect, she proceeded to undress out of the pair of pajamas that Nana had given her and put on the clothes she had come to the household in. When she made her way downstairs to the kitchen, she was immediately greeted by the three kids who had tackled her yesterday. Nana greeted her warmly before returning to the breakfast she was making for everyone in the house.

Just as soon as she took a seat, Tsuna came down into the kitchen. He caught her stare for a moment before looking away. Yuuki winced; she had a feeling that the dark circles underneath his eyes were her fault.

"Tsuna-nii!" Fuuta noticed the boy standing in the door way. "Over here!" He pointed to the only empty seat by the table.

Oh no...

Yuuki's eyes traveled to the only chair that hadn't been claimed by anyone. The one that just so happened to be right beside her. Tsuna noticed as well and he remained standing up for a few seconds before walking towards the seat and sitting down beside Yuuki.

There was silence as Yuuki and Tsuna avoided each other in either interaction or gaze. The others around them could sense the tension between the two of them, but were unable to find anything to say themselves.

As they ate, Yuuki risked a glance at the boy beside her and nearly dropped her chop sticks in alarm.

"What the?" Without even asking him, she took one of Tsuna's arms and yanked it towards her.

Yuuki's eyes weren't deceiving her; Tsuna had taken off the bandages she had painstakingly took the time to wrap around the scratches. But that wasn't what was bothering her at the moment even though she would talk to him later about unraveling all her hard work; it was the fact that where there had once been deep red angry thin lines on his skin, they were now replaced by fading white scars.

The scratches were nearly healed. Probably a day or two before they were completely gone.

She stared at the boy's arm for a few more seconds before dropping it and returning his bewildered gaze.

"Do your injuries normally heal _this _fast or what?"

Everyone was staring at her, except for Nana who was currently focused on her cooking. Yuuki noticed the stares and fixed them with a blank one of her own.

"What?" She said tilting her head to the side, a small frown on her face. Why were they staring at her like that?

"Yuuki-nee," Fuuta said slowly, looking confused. "Weren't you the one who healed Tsuna-nii with your powers?"

_What? _

* * *

><p><strong>And I'm done! Yeah, I realize that this chapter is shorter compared to the other chapters, but a chapter is still a chapter! Actually, it's the shortest chapter I've printed out so far, I think...<strong>

**I also realize that it's slow. So I'll spoil the next chapter a bit... **

**Tsuna and Yuuki are going on a date! At the amusement park!  
><strong>


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